ALBANY (WBEN) - An optimistic Governor Cuomo held a press conference Thursday afternoon to provide an update on the improving COVID rates and vaccination numbers, and he even made a few 'reopening' announcements.
"All good news on COVID," said Cuomo. "The statewide positivity rate is down to 2.8%, and that is great news. We still lost 57 New Yorkers yesterday, and they are in our thoughts in prayers, but the numbers are dramatically on the decline."
The statewide seven-day positivity rate is down to 3.2%, which means New York has a lower rate right now than before the holiday surge even started.
"While COVID is going down, vaccinations are going up," Cuomo continued. "It is about getting people vaccinated. The vaccine is now coming in - it's going to come in in large quantities over the next several weeks, and then it's just going to be a logistical operation like you've never seen to get millions of doses into people's arms."
Roughly 7 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed to New Yorkers thus far, with roughly 2.5 million residents being fully vaccinated. The governor is urging people to take any vaccine they can get "because they all work."
Cuomo then said that New York needs to start thinking about life beyond the pandemic.
"Start to look to the future aggressively, and let's get back to life and living and get that economy running," said Cuomo.
As part of this message of getting closer to normal life, Cuomo announced new guidelines for travel sports teams. Starting Monday, statewide sports travel will be permitted, as teams have only been allowed to travel to contiguous counties.
And perhaps an even bigger announcement:
