New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday. that seven Northeast states — New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Rhode Island and Massachusetts — are joining forces to create a reopening plan.
Cuomo said, “Each state is going to name a public health official for that state, an economic development official for that state. Those officials will then form a working group that will start work immediately on designing a reopening plan, taking into consideration the public health concerns and issues and the economic reactivation issues. State boundaries mean very little to this virus.” Cuomo continued, “We anticipate different facts, different circumstances for different states, different parts of states. Let’s be smart and let’s be cooperative and learn from one another.”
Delaware Gov. John Carney added, “Our states are connected in a real way in terms of transportation and visitation and the rest. So our working together, sharing our information and intelligence I think will help each of us make better decisions.”
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont noted the “hundreds of thousands of people going back and forth between New York and Connecticut. It’s the commuter corridor for us and it’s also the COVID corridor, which is why it’s so important we work together thoughtfully on this.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said, “the plan must show us that we do have a future. As we figure out how we’re gonna reopen our schools, how we reopen our businesses and our homes, we are also going to recognize that we’re trying to figure out how we’re going to restore the sense of hope that this pandemic has taken away.”
Initially, six states were announced and later in the evening, Cuomo announced that Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker joined the coalition.
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