NEW YORK CITY — Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are still waiting for their unemployment checks, according to the Governor’s office.
New York’s Labor Department has yet to process 400,000 unemployment claims that have come pouring in since March, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo shut down the state to combat the spread of new coronavirus, Secretary Melissa DeRosa said Tuesday.
“There will be a disturbance to the economy, I have no doubt,” Cuomo said. “But it will come back.”
New York has 3,000 staff members dedicated to processing claims and have delivered about $3.1 billion to roughly 1.5 million people, DeRosa said.
“They’re going to keep working on it until everyone gets there money,” DeRosa said.
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Cuomo detailed plans to relaunch the state’s economy and announced the newly formed NY Forward Reopening Advisory Board, made up of 100 business and community leaders, to design the strategy.
The initial 12-point plan calls for reopening businesses that would not draw dangerous crowds — or “attractive nuisances” — as well as increased testing for symptomatic people and essential workers.
It also includes a s tracing initiative led by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whom Cuomo appointed last week to lead the charge on the state’s disease tracing system.
Cuomo estimates New York will need 30 “tracers,” or disease detectives, for every 100,000 state citizens.
Cuomo also promised to release a decision on how New York public schools will move forward in the weeks ahead by Friday.
Reopening efforts would come to a halt if hospitals reach 70 percent capacity or the transmission rate reaches 1.1, or when those infected are spreading COVID-19 to more than one person.
Said Cuomo. “Those are danger signs.”
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This article originally appeared on the New York City Patch