Six governors, including NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo, will create a multi-state council to restore the economy and get people back to work.

The coordinating group -- comprised of one health expert, one economic development expert and the respective Chief of Staff from each state -- will work together to develop “a fully integrated regional framework to gradually lift the states' stay at home orders while minimizing the risk of increased spread of the virus,” Cuomo’s office said.

The council will use “every tool available” to accomplish the goal of easing social isolation without triggering renewed spread -- including testing, contact tracing, treatment and social distancing -- and will rely on the best available scientific, statistical, social and economic information to manage and evaluate those tools, Cuomo’s office said.

The other governors involved are New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, Delaware Governor John Carney and Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo.

"We have been collaborating closely with our neighboring states to combat this pandemic through a uniform approach to social distancing and density reduction and it has been working well. Now it is time to start opening the valve slowly and carefully while watching the infection rate meter so we don't trigger a second wave of new infections," Governor Cuomo said in a prepared statement. "This is not a light switch that we can just flick on and everything goes back to normal - we have to come up with a smart, consistent strategy to restart the systems we shut down and get people back to work, and to the extent possible we want to do that through a regional approach because we are a regional economy. New York is partnering with these five states to create a multi-state council that will come up with a framework based on science and data to gradually ease the stay at home restrictions and get our economy back up and running."

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