The governors of New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware say they will coordinate a plan for reopening parts of the economy shuttered to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday he believes the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in his state has plateaued, so it is time to look forward to reopening— in coordination with other states in the region.
Cuomo announced a working group made up of each state’s chief of staff, a public health official and an economic official. He said the group will develop a plan to gradually lift stay at home orders based on data and the experiences of other countries. The group is to start work Tuesday and deliver guidelines within weeks.
“We anticipate different facts, different circumstances for different states, different parts of states,” said Cuomo. “But let’s be smart and let’s be cooperative and let’s learn from one another.”
Delaware’s representatives will include Gov. John Carney’s Chief of Staff Sheila Grant, Delaware Department of Health and Social Services Secretary Dr. Kara Odom Walker and Delaware Prosperity Partnership CEO Kurt Foreman.
Carney thanked Cuomo for including Delaware.
“Frankly, [the working group] really just formalize for me what I've already been doing along with Governors [Phil] Murphy [of New Jersey] and Tom Wolf [of Pennsylvania] in our Metro Philadelphia area,” he said. “We talk on a number of occasions about decisions that we've had to make, in terms of shutting down businesses, in terms of business and supply chains that are connected among our states.”
Carney says Delaware is connected to its northern neighbors by I-95 and Amtrak.
“Our economies are connected,” he said. “Our states are connected in a real way in terms of transportation and visitation and the rest, and so working together, sharing our information and intelligence I think will help each of us make better decisions.”
But Carney noted the outbreak in Delaware seems to be peaking later than in New York and northern New Jersey.
“Our message here at home still is, be safe,” said Carney. “Stay at home. When you go out, observe appropriate social distancing. We will continue with that message, but at the same time think about the timing of re-entry and getting back to life back to normal again, if that ever occurs.”
Cuomo said in a statement Monday afternoon the goal is to start “opening the valve” slowly while observing the infection rate to avoid triggering a second wave of infections.
“This is not a light switch that we can just flick on and everything goes back to normal,” he said. “We have to come up with a smart, consistent strategy to restart the systems we shut down and get people back to work, and to the extent possible we want to do that through a regional approach because we are a regional economy.”
