Long Island is on track to enter Phase 3 on June 24, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday, meaning food services and personal care businesses can reopen.
Restaurants can serve customers under Phase 3 rules; personal care businesses that can reopen include tattoo and piercing facilities, appearance enhancement practitioners, massage therapy, spas, cosmetology, nail specialty, tanning and waxing.
“This crisis was created because the virus did not come from China. It did not come from China, mistake. The virus came from Europe,” Cuomo said. The federal government didn’t screen those people because the virus was supposed to be in China according to them. That’s how the crisis was created in New York. That’s why New York had the high infection rate. ”
Citing the continuing decline in new infections and deaths, Cuomo said, “New York has climbed the mountain. It’s a mountain that we had to climb and it went straight up and we couldn’t see the top because the top was in the clouds.”
Of the 59,341 people tested for the COVID-19 infection Tuesday, only 567 tests came back positive — 0.96% of total, Cuomo said. In Suffolk County, COVID-19 hospitalizations rose to 129 from 121. One person died of the virus.
Cuomo also signed legislation (S.8397-A/A.10326-A) prohibiting health care employers from penalizing employees for making complaints of employer violations.