New York Governor Andrew Cuomo held a press conference Wednesday. He spoke after red zone COVID-19 infection rates have come down in parts of the state in the last week, but as as New Jersey sees a surge in cases.
CBS New York reported earlier Wednesday that Cuomo was set to announce a redrawing of COVID-19 hot spot zones. The governor will narrow restrictions to certain blocks, instead of whole zip codes, after complaints from residents.
That means relief for some businesses, schools and religious institutions that have been under tight restrictions for the past two weeks.
"We have total flexibility in these zones," Cuomo said Tuesday. "As discrete areas get better, you can rewrite the size of the zones, and that's what we're looking at doing now."
The red zone infection rates are coming down in Queens, Brooklyn, Rockland and Orange counties in the last week.
However, a surge in cases in New Jersey has the president of University Hospital in Newark saying the second wave is here.
"We expected a second wave to happen in the fall. The question is how bad it gets," Dr. Shereef Elnahal said.
Health officials attribute the spike to indoor gatherings, not schools or businesses, which Gov. Phil Murphy says makes the spread even harder to contain.
"These are mostly gatherings that are beyond our ability to effectively regulate or easily enforce compliance," he said.