Many regions in New York State are re-opening for Phase III after being the epicenter of COVID-19. Governor Cuomo has required guidelines to help the 10 New York regions stay safe.

Please note that New York City is currently in Phase II.

Health Requirements:

According to the governor, opening businesses in phases allows local and state leaders to monitor the spread of COVID-19 and determine if the next phases will be permitted to re-open.

In Phase III New York State will require employers to conduct employee health screening closely. It is also mandatory that the number-of-occupants remain at 50% less than its maximum occupancy. This will be based on the Certificate of Occupancy of the business.

All individuals must maintain a distance of at least 6ft while in the business location. Anytime a worker or visitor must come within 6 ft. of another person, acceptable face coverings must be worn, making sure that the person covers their nose and mouth.

Individuals must be prepared to wear a face covering if another person unexpectedly comes within the 6ft. This helps stop the spread, if a person has COVID-19 and are asymptomatic or they have the disease in their system but have not yet become symptomatic.

Elevators and vehicles will only be permitted to have one person in it at a time, unless all individuals are wearing facemasks. If the elevator or vehicle is occupied by more than one person, occupancy must be kept under 50% maximum capacity.

“Hot Desks” (shared workstations) must be disinfected between users.

According to Executive Order 202.34, businesses Can Deny Entry to individuals who do not wear masks or face-coverings.

Everyone should maintain good hygiene by washing his or her hands frequently for 20 seconds.

Staff members must be reminded to monitor their health closely and stay home if sick. Individuals, who get sick at work, must be sent home immediately.

In order to reduce congregation at the workplace businesses should:

• Adjust workplace hours
• Limit in-person presence to necessary staff
• Shift design of space
• Reduce on-site workforce
• Stagger arrival/departure times

Compliance of Re-opening:

Governor Cuomo states that businesses that are most essential and pose the lowest risk will be the first to open.

To re-open businesses must confirm that they agree to operate in compliance with the detailed Guidance Affirmation. A link for the Affirmation can be found at https://forward.ny.gov/phase-one-industries.

Every business must have a written plan outlining how it will prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace.

Each plan must include:

1. Wellness Checks for employees and customers
2. Disinfection and Cleaning Routines
3. Social Distancing
4. PPE supply for employees and customers.

To help create your re-opening plan go to the NYS Business Re-Opening Safety Plan Template.

Roman has an emergency management team that can assist with your re-opening safety plan. Please visit our website to see what Roman can do for you in this challenging time; https://www.romansearch.com/.

The Phases include, which businesses may re-open:

Phase II in New York City will permit limited outdoor dining at restaurants, places of worship with 25% occupancy, hair salons/barber shops, professional offices, retail stores, real estate, rental & leasing, car dealerships.

Phase III in the Northern Suburbs and Long Island, will permit indoor dining at restaurants (50% occupancy), hair salons/barber shops, nail salons, spas, tattoo parlors, professional offices, retail stores, real estate, rental & leasing, car dealerships.

Phase IIII will permit locations to open for the arts, entertainment, recreation and education.

Each region will re-open businesses in phases with at least two weeks between each phase. This will allow all state leaders to monitor the effects of re-opening and ensure infection rates are steady before moving to the next phase.

Medical experts state regions must appoint an oversight institution as its “control room” to monitor the regional infection rate during phased re-openings.

Each phase will be reopened only if:

1. The infection rate is sufficiently low.
2. The health care system has the capacity to absorb a potential resurgence in new cases.
3. Diagnostic testing capacity is sufficiently high to detect and isolate new cases.
4. Contract tracing capacity is in place to help prevent the spread of the virus. Currently, New York is scaling up testing at rates higher than any state or country in the world.

Contact Tracing:

Contract tracing helps prevent the spread of COVID-19 through 5 key steps:

1. Labs report positive cases of COVID-19 to contact tracers on a daily basis through the state reporting system.
2. Contract tracers will interview positive patients and identify people they may have come into contact with over the past 14 days.
3. The contract tracer then notifies and interviews each contact of the original positive individual to alert them to their risk of infection and instructs those to quarantine or isolate for 14 days to prevent further spread.
4. The contract tracer monitors those contacts by text for the duration of their quarantine/isolation to determine if the contacts are showing any symptoms.
5. Members of the tracing team will also work with any individual being traced who needs social services assistance, such as housing, food or medicine while they are quarantined.

You can find more about the phased re-openings at forward.ny.gov.

Good Hygiene:

Remember that good hygiene may prevent you from getting sick.

1. Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially before you eat.
2. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
3. Avoid close contact with people; do not shake hands.
4. Keep a distance of at least 6 feet from others.
5. Wear a facemask or cloth face covering that covers your nose and mouth when in public and/or when 6 feet of social distancing cannot be maintained.
6. Cover your cough and sneezes with a tissue and discard it in a closed container.
7. Clean frequently touched surfaces and objects.

Roman would like to thank all essential workers who put their lives on the line everyday.

To assign us a case please refer to our website: www.romansearch.com