The governor of the state of New York, Andrew Cuomo, announced on Monday that certain “low risk” commercial and recreational activities will reopen from this Friday throughout the territory as part of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are beginning a new chapter in the fight against the virus,” Cuomo said at a press conference. “We have worked together as a state to flatten the curve and the decline has reached a point where we can turn towards reopening,” he added.

The activities in question include gardening businesses, low-risk outdoor recreational activities, such as tennis, and drive-ins.

Furthermore, Cuomo has specified that the Finger Lakes, Southern Tier and Mohawk Valley regions have completed the seven metrics required to move to phase one of the regional reopening plans.

Thus, also from Friday, they will be able to reopen businesses such as construction, manufacture of wholesale supply, retail stores to collect products in-store or send them to the home, agriculture, forestry and fishing.

According to Cuomo, 1,660 new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the last 24 hours, so the global virus in the state, the one most affected by the United States’ pandemic, has risen to 337,055 positives. Deaths exceed 26,000. So far, the North American country has confirmed more than 1.3 million cases of COVID-19 and the deaths exceed 80,300.