“Lifting restrictions after more than 15 months of emergency declarations and arbitrary mandates is overdue, welcome news.

Through the efforts and sacrifice of New Yorkers and courageous frontline workers, the COVID positivity and hospitalization rates have significantly decreased. We have reached a state of recovery – not emergency – and residents and businesses deserve to return to a sense of normalcy.

For thousands who lost loved ones, whose jobs are gone and never coming back, or whose livelihood was taken away due to lockdown orders, today’s announcement is hardly a cause for celebration or a fireworks display. It’s yet another reminder of the steep price that was paid.

After the governor’s rhetoric today, after another self-congratulatory speech and after his orchestrated celebrations are over, New York is still, inexplicably, operating under a state of emergency. The real celebrations should take place once we are all out from under Gov. Cuomo’s unilateral control.”