How to read New York’s ‘dashboard’ for reopening

The fate of a region's reopening rests on a New York State "dashboard" measuring everything from hospitalizations to intensive care unit capacity.

There are green checks and red Xs next to the benchmarks for each of the 10 regions. Seven green checks for a region mean it is a go – it can begin the gradual process of rolling back state restrictions on businesses and public gatherings.

The criteria are based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, state officials said.

The Western New York region, defined by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo as Erie, Niagara, Allegany, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties, isn't there yet. As of Friday, it still fell short on two measures: Western New York has not seen a 14-day decline in Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths.

Cuomo has urged New Yorkers to closely watch the measures in their own region. "I hope people get up in the morning, have their cup of coffee and go online to figure out how their county is doing," Cuomo said Thursday.

But the dashboard – which can be found at forward.ny.gov/regional-monitoring-dashboard – is not exactly easy to decipher. We broke it down for you:

No. 1 - Total hospitalizations