Professional sports teams in New York have been given the green light to start their training camps in anticipation that they’ll be able to play on television, but without fans in attendance, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday.
"We are working and encouraging all sports teams to start their training camps as soon as possible and we'll work with them to make that happen,” Cuomo said.
Allowing sports teams to play the regular season, albeit without fans, will signal another return to “normalcy,” Cuomo said. Final terms haven’t been set for Major League Baseball, as of Sunday, but it’s possible the sport could return for a condensed season.
There's no word yet on specifics in terms of the annual training camp for the Buffalo Bills at St. John Fisher College. WXXI News reached out to the Buffalo Bills about this year's camp, and a spokesman referred us to a statement that was sent out in mid-May from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, where he said that teams may reopen their facilities if they are permitted to do so under sate and local regulations and have followed health protocols outlined by the league.
Campgrounds and RV parks will also be open to the public starting Monday, Cuomo said, after state beaches were allowed to open over the weekend for Memorial Day.
Cuomo said the Mid-Hudson region was still on track to open Tuesday, with contact tracers expected to be trained in time to start the first phase of reopening the economy. Long Island is still expected to start reopening Wednesday, he said.
The state’s major indicators continued to trend downward Sunday, with total hospitalizations and net intubations falling again Saturday, the latest data available from the state. The number of new hospitalizations ticked up slightly, with 229 new patients requiring treatment Saturday.
After dipping below 100 for the first time since late March Friday, the number of daily deaths from COVID-19 increased Saturday. An additional 109 people died from the disease in New York, bringing the statewide death toll to 23,391.
