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On Friday, Nov. 13, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that Rockland’s COVID-19 zone has been downgraded from orange to yellow, though the county had two new virus-related deaths as the number of active cases spiked to more than 1,100.
With the orange zone going to yellow, the yellow buffer zone in the area has been lifted, Cuomo said.
The seven-day rolling average in Rockland's “orange zone” dropped from 4.08 percent between Sunday, Oct. 25, and Saturday, Oct. 31 to 2.96 percent between Sunday, Nov. 1, and Saturday, Nov. 7, and the current average is down to 2.49 percent, prompting Cuomo to lower the restrictions.
As of Wednesday, Nov. 11, the infection rate in the “orange zone” dipped to 1.81 percent.
“I appreciate the governor acknowledging the hard-fought progress being made locally and look forward to Rockland having all of the micro-cluster restrictions lifted,” Rockland County Executive Ed Day said. “This is an extremely positive step for residents and local businesses.”
Day noted that despite the relief of some restrictions, Rockland still needs to be diligent in following the state’s COVID-19 mandates and guidance to avoid the recent surge in new cases getting any worse.
“However, I want to caution everyone that we must continue following the common-sense hygienic precautions which decrease the spread of this deadly disease,” he added. “We must learn to live with it to keep these numbers low, our residents healthy and our businesses open.”
Yellow zone restrictions include a 25-person maximum capacity on mass gatherings, four-person to a table maximum while dining, and 20 percent weekly testing of in-person students, faculty in schools. Bars and restaurants located in the zone are also subject to curfews.
“COVID is surging across the country and the globe, and we expect the rates will continue to go up through the fall and into the winter," Cuomo said. "The long-term prognosis is getting a vaccine as quickly as possible, and administer the vaccine as quickly, fairly, and equitably as possible.
“In the meantime, we manage the increase by doing more testing and targeted restrictions where necessary, and being more aggressive on enforcement,” the governor continued. “I know people are tired - COVID fatigue is real. But the virus isn't tired.
“The red, orange, and yellow zones are our way of saying the virus is making headway and we're going to increase restrictions and we're going to increase enforcement.”
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