By Paddy McCarthy
Things are starting to happen as we move along from this Coronavirus as the numbers are going down. Yes, I know what you are saying, we’ve never seen anything like this before and hopefully we will never its like again. We’ve lost a lot of some great people because of this virus and we have learned a lot from it as well. It has been difficult for so many people, especially families with young children with nowhere to go.
The good news is that at least outside of the city we are on Phase 1 of the reopening that permits the return of construction jobs and manufacturing open and back to work and in Phase 2, which was to start on Monday, thousands of retail stores, hair salons and barbershops can reopen their doors to customers. And it was stopped again on Thursday.
Now here what was confusing: Phase 1 is in effect for all regions of the state save for New York City, allowing retail curbside pickup, construction and manufacturing to get underway. Cuomo’s announcement during his daily briefing came after confusion that had lasted from Thursday into Friday. That had only including an overnight executive order that kept in place Phase 1 for all of upstate New York and Long Island. The delay has frustrated some local elected officials who had expected further information from the state. Regional control groups were told Thursday evening phase one would be extended.
“We must choose logic over lockdowns to maintain the health of our economy and our regions,” said Republican Senate Minority Leader John Flanagan. “Regions that met metrics for Phase 2 and businesses that were preparing for a safe reopening should certainly be able to do that.”
I just got a call from Joe Kelly from Dublin who lives in Rutherford New Jersey. He was in in New York City for the last few months because of the Coronavirus and guess what? He hasn’t had a drink either for over four months, I have to congratulate Joe on that. Now Joe that was very smart and as you know like the song goes the “Pub has no Beer” now what are we going to do?
Some more news for yea all and thanks for all the support you’ve all shown to Slainte2020, the Irish charity set up to help families and others out of work due to the lock down. They have announced that they are running two raffles to raise additional funds. Raffle #1 is for two round trip tickets from New York to Dublin, donated generously by Aer Lingus, thru the good graces of Helen Maguire, Director of North American Sales. Tickets for this are $100 each, and there are only 100 tickets being sold. If you want to enter please visit www.slainte2020.org.
The second raffle is for two grandstand tickets to the 2021 All Ireland Football Final , between Dublin and the runners up. These tickets are courtesy of Paul Flynn, CEO of the Gaelic Players Association, and were obtained thru the good graces of Dublin Society member Eddie Dowling. Tickets for this raffle are $20 each. These are two separate raffles, not a package.
Now here is the news that I want to give you: to date Slainte 2020 has raised and distributed over $350,000 to over 250 Irish families in need in the tri-state area. 100% of money raised is redistributed, with the sponsoring organizations incurring all the running and administrative costs.
I’m looking forward to getting back to normal in a few weeks and having a pint or two with whoever is up for it. Now isn’t that great and it’s all because of you. Stad Slan agus Nigh do Lamh, Ath Cliath Abu. Good on yea Shane.
The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles has announced that beginning Monday, June 1, state-run DMV offices in the counties of Albany, Onondaga, Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland, Westchester and the five boroughs of New York City will begin to process vehicle registrations and other transactions by mail, and beginning June 4, will accept transactions through secure drop boxes located at each office. County Clerks that operate DMV offices in the remaining 51 counties of the state are advised to follow the State DMV’s timeline and guidance for reopening. For specific information about services offered by county-operated offices visit https://dmv.ny.gov/dmv/dmv-office-locations.
In addition, Commercial Driver License (CDL) road tests will begin to resume in all regions that are in at least phase 1 of reopening. All road tests will be conducted with strict safety requirements in place; DMV road test examiners will wear gloves, face shields and have hand sanitizer, and customers must wear masks and will be screened prior to beginning the test.
Customers whose road tests were canceled because of COVID-19 will be given priority for rescheduling, and DMV staff will begin outreach to those customers on June 1. Reservations for other CDL customers will be available in the days following at: https://dmv.ny.gov/schedule-road-test. Road tests and reservations for Class D (passenger vehicles) will not be available at this time.
As regions enter phase 3 of reopening, DMV will offer limited in-person transactions in state-run DMV offices by reservation only, prioritizing critical services, and will resume road tests for all drivers at that time. Until then, there will be no in-person transactions in any DMV office and reservations will only become available as regions enter phase 3. Further guidance will be provided at the appropriate time.
As part of the Governor’s initiative for antibody sampling of essential workers, food delivery and restaurant workers will be offered the opportunity to receive free COVID-19 antibody testing. Sampling will be available to these employees until Thursday 6/4. This test will indicate whether an individual was previously infected with COVID-19 and now possesses antibodies to the virus. The sampling will be performed by the NYS Department of Health. Please note that testing is voluntary, and DOH will not provide any employer with an individual’s test results.
The testing process takes approximately 15 minutes and your participation will not only help you understand whether you’ve been previously exposed to COVID-19 but will also help New York State better understand the overall impact of the virus.
Please contact NYS.COVID19.AntibodyTestingSystem@health.ny.govfor questions related to the antibody sampling and testing process.
Why I decided to tell all this is that I know it will be very impotent to you right now with this virus going around and I know that this will be helpful.
See you all again WHEN I am Out&About…