Cuomo faults states that ‘have not coordinated their actions’ in reopening plans

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) warned of the consequences of an improperly coordinated reopening at the state level even as he said parts of New York were prepared to reopen beginning Friday.

“On this next phase, we have to learn from the mistakes that others have made,” Cuomo said at his daily press briefing Monday. “We’re not the first to reopen, and that’s a good thing, because you can look around and learn … we want to monitor our reopening so if there’s any change we can immediately calibrate.”

Cuomo did not identify states by name but said “some states have not coordinated their actions,” adding that in such cases, “you have one county doing this, another county doing this, you’ve confused the general population.”

“There is no county-by-county plan here. It has to be coordinated, and it has to be at least in a region, and we did that. Other states didn’t,” he added, saying New York’s strategy “was smart, and there’s one set of rules, and the public has to understand the set of rules.”

Cuomo noted that some states have begun reopening without meeting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention thresholds, which include cases declining for 14 consecutive days. “There’s a lot of pressure … but pressure doesn’t mean you act unintelligent,” he said.  

The governor also noted that some states, upon reopening, have seen a flood of visitors from neighboring states with lockdown measures still in place. While Cuomo did not identify Georgia by name, headlines about out-of-state visitors to the Peach State appeared in his slide presentation as he spoke.

Cuomo faulted unnamed states for failing to make “people part of the plan” for controlling the spread of the virus. 

Cuomo’s comments came a day after leaders in Northern Virginia asked Gov. Ralph Northam (D) to base the state’s reopening measures on regional benchmarks, noting much of the region is ill-prepared to begin the reopening process on Friday, when Northam has said it can begin.