New York continues to be the number one hot spot in the country when it comes to coronavirus cases. Yet, there is no denying that upstate has far fewer numbers than downstate. This has caused many upstate local leaders to call for a regional approach when it comes to reopening businesses in the state.

Senator Fred Akshar is polling his constituents in the Southern Tier, to see how they would feel about reopening the economy.

“In just about a day and a half we have had over 6,000 responses,” Akshar explained. “And the issue is broken down about 70-30. So 70% of the people responding to the survey think in fact we should take a regional approach. “

Senator Akshar says that safety still remains the top priority for people in these preliminary survey results. But he says he does think that there could be a slow, incremental, regional approach when it comes to reopening businesses in the state, dependent on hospital capacity in the area.

“Do I necessarily think that if a restaurant can seat 150 people and if we decided to take a regional approach that we open that restaurant up to full capacity? I don’t think that’s smart,” Akshar said. “Until we have a vaccine, until we have the virus under control, I think we should continue to social distance. But nonetheless, I think the opportunity exists for us to reopen the economy on a regional basis.”

Governor Andrew Cuomo has been hesitant to reopen things on a regional basis saying people will just travel to the areas that are open.  

“Public facilities, schools, parades, concerts, these would all be magnets for people,” Cuomo said in his press conference Monday.

But as Akshar points out, there are already people driving upstate as it is.

“I think that people are certainly coming from the bottom half of the state towards the upper half, maybe to get away from the virus, so I think that we just have to continue to advocate for people to stay in their respective communities,” Akshar said.

Governor Cuomo says he will make an announcement on Tuesday possibly allowing some upstate hospitals to start preforming elective surgeries based on their current hospital capacity.