NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo says New York City is on track to begin reopening the week of June 8

Andrew Kelly/Reuters

• New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that New York City would begin reopening the week of June 8.
• "We will stay on track by focusing on the hotspots," Cuomo said in a tweet. "We know down to the zip code where the infection rate is higher than average. We will meet the need where it is greatest."
• Under phase one of the reopening plan, nonessential stores would be allowed to open for curbside pickup, and nonessential construction and manufacturing can also resume.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Friday that New York City would begin reopening the week of June 8.

"We will stay on track by focusing on the hotspots," Cuomo said in a tweet. "We know down to the zip code where the infection rate is higher than average. We will meet the need where it is greatest."

"I am proud of the way New York is figuring it out," Cuomo said during a news conference.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio joined Cuomo's briefing after the governor announced plans to reopen the city.

"We are excited to get to the point of a restart for New York City," de Blasio said. "When I talked to the people of New York City this morning, I told them the indicators were moving absolutely in the right direction, but that the key to getting to that definition of phase one came from the collaboration between you and me and the state and the city to all get on the same page. We're absolutely on the same page."

Cuomo said Friday that New York City still needed to meet three criteria to join the rest of the state in reopening, according to NBC New York. Two criteria relate to hospital capacity; the third criterion relates to contact tracing. But the governor said the city was on track to meet all three criteria by the end of the week.

Under phase one of the reopening plan, nonessential stores would be allowed to open for curbside pickup, and nonessential construction and manufacturing can also resume. De Blasio said that as many as 400,000 people may return to work as the city begins reopening after being on lockdown for months.

Cuomo also said Friday that five regions in the state that began reopening on May 15 — Central New York, Southern Tier, North Country, Mohawk Valley, and Finger Lakes — are clear to enter phase two of the process.

Phase two allows for stores, commercial real-estate buildings, barber shops, and vehicle sales to resume business, though strict social-distancing guidelines and limits on capacity will still apply.

The state of New York is one of the biggest hotspots for the novel coronavirus outbreak within the US. To date, it's seen 371,559 confirmed cases of the virus and 29,438 deaths.

On Thursday, Cuomo announced an executive order that would allow businesses to deny entry to people who are not wearing masks.

"I've been working to communicate this message about masks and how effective they are," the governor said.

"They are deceptively effective. They are amazingly effective, and we've made them mandatory in public settings, public transportation, but when we talk about reopening stores and places of business, we're giving the store owners the right to say, 'If you're not wearing a mask, you can't come in.'"

Read the original article on Business Insider