Gov. Andrew Cuomo appeared to confirm Phase 1 of the four-phased reopening plan will last at least 14 days.

Next week the Captial Region and Western New York will end its "14 days of Phase 1" and then a decision will be made by health experts if those regions will enter Phase 2, Cuomo said.

"On the decision of reopening, I'm making sure we have the best minds. I said since Day 1, we must open smart," Cuomo said.

Late Thursday, Cuomo said the state was bringing in international experts to help advise the state's reopening plan.

Friday afternoon, Cuomo said the experts looked at the data and the Central New York North Country, Mohawk Valley, Finger Lakes and Southern Tier regions entered Phase 2.

The Mid-Hudson Region entered Phase 1 on Tuesday, May 26. Which means Phase 2 could start on June 9.

Cuomo previously said two weeks in between phases was a rough estimate.

Each region has a Regional Control Group that will monitor the seven benchmarks a region needed to hit to start reopening. If the metrics start to rise, a region could be shut down again to stop the spread of the virus.

He said 14 days between each phase is an "estimate" because it gives officials time to gauge the spread of the virus. He did say if the numbers continue to go down, officials could accelerate the reopening. As of now, that doesn't seem to be the case.

"We are reopening smart," Cuomo tweeted during his COVID-19 briefing on Saturday. "We follow the data — not opinions."

New York City will enter Phase 1 on June 8, Cuomo said on Saturday during his COVID-19 briefing from the Bronx. He said 10 COVID-19 "hot spots" are being targetted to help New York City reach Phase 1 by June 8.

The number of lives lost from COVID-19 again reached an all-time low. 67 New Yorkers died from the virus on Friday, which is the same number of people Cuomo reported from the previous day.

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