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The academic year at many colleges just came to a close but faculty at several central New York institutions are already making decisions that will affect the fall semester as they wrestle with the uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Onondaga County has reopened the Oneida Shores beach, the Rosamond Gifford Zoo and libraries will reopen Tuesday. County Executive Ryan McMahon said while he’s not as concerned about a rise in COVID cases because of those reopenings, his team will be watching the county's infection rate.  

How has the federal government responded to the COVID-19 pandemic? Was it proactive enough? Did it learn lessons fast enough. This week, Grant Reeher speaks with central New York Rep. John Katko (R-Camillus) about the pandemic, and the responses that his office has been taking. 

While Gov. Andrew Cuomo has held daily briefings on the coronavirus and issued more than 250 executive orders, the state legislature has been absent from the Capitol for six weeks. Now, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins say they plan to hold committee meetings on May 26 and convene in session in the following days to vote on legislation related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

New York's statewide shutdown is not just costing businesses a lot of money, it's also depleting the sales tax revenues that local governments need to make ends meet. Syracuse officials earlier this month passed a budget that took $9 million from the city's reserves to plug a budget hole and now Watertown leaders are struggling to make ends meet as well. 

Following a yearlong review, plans to merge five Catholic churches into one parish in Oswego will move ahead. But an historic church in the city Oswego will also continue to operate under different rules.

Memorial Day weekend begins with beaches around the state opening up and other tentative steps to restart the economy. In his daily coronavirus briefing Thursday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the reopenings can be done safely if people follow the rules.

Barbershops, hair and nail salons were ordered to close on March 21, by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Last week, Cuomo announced hair stylists are in phase two of reopening parts of New York State. Although the state has not yet provided any guidance on what that might look like, salon owners are taking it upon themselves to start planning. 

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New York will allow religious gatherings of up to 10 people starting Thursday, but that size restriction makes it unlikely many services will get underway.

Pastor Darren Jaime of the People's A.M.E Zion Church in Syracuse isn't aware of any parishes that would fit the size requirement. It's nothing a church his size could do.

"Maybe you do ten only for three services. I don't know what the answer would be for those who have that threshold," Jaime said. "Certainly it's a start, but before we can embrace that, it's going to have to open up bigger than that."

St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center in Syracuse is one of 16 hospitals across the state taking part in a pilot program to determine the best way to reopen hospitals to visitors. Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday the pilot program will allow limited visitors in hospitals.

"It is terrible to have someone in the hospital, and that person is isolated, not able to see family and friends. I understand the health reasons, you're afraid of the virus spread," Cuomo said.

Cuomo hopes this two-week pilot program can assess ways to bring visitors into the hospital safely.

Parts of New York state are gradually reopening, with western New York authorized on Monday to join five other regions of the state and begin the first of a four-phase process. The Capital Region will be allowed to begin reopening on Tuesday. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo also said Monday that churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship are not permitted to reopen, though, until phase 4 is reached. Religious leaders are asking the state for more guidance, and whether -- if they practiced safe social distancing -- they could open sooner than that. 

Amazon is at the center of what is arguably the biggest economic development project in central New York in decades. An Amazon executive made the announcement via video Monday during Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon's daily coronavirus news conference.

Anand Mehta, Amazon's regional director of operations, let everyone in on what's been a closely guarded secret since a distribution project was announced last fall, from a video monitor rolled onto the stage.

Ten regions that make up New York State each have a regional control room with members that will review the infection, testing and hospitalization rates of the coronavirus daily, so action can be taken if positive cases increase significantly. Central New York’s control room has been able to get more clarification from the state on what businesses are allowed to reopen, but questions still remain. 

In the coming weeks, many companies in central and northern New York will become eligible to reopen, but each individual business will first have to satisfy certain state regulations to once again serve their customers.

New Yok has been the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Central and Northern New York have fared better than downstate, but are nonetheless dealing with a severe public health crisis. This week, Grant Reeher talks with State Sen. Rachel May (D-Syracuse) about the national, state, and local response to the pandemic. 

Construction in central and northern New York will soon ramp up now that the state has given the regions permission to start reopening, but it may be awhile before the industry is back to business as usual. 

Earl Hall is executive director of the Syracuse Builders Exchange, an affiliation of 950 construction industry firms in upstate New York. He said prior to the statewide shutdown, upstate was poised to see its best construction season in 20-30 years.