The Times Union reports that Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the Capital Region can begin the re-opening process from the COVID-19 stay-home orders this week once enough contact tracers are hired. Greene, Columbia, Rensselaer, and Albany Counties will all be eligible to open once the contract tracers are hired, now that the state recalibrated the metrics needed to reopen some businesses. Previously the area fell short of requirements for declining hospitalizations and deaths, but the state shifted the timeline to hit those metrics, and the Capital Region is "now qualified for reopening," the governor said on May 17. In a few days, Cuomo estimated, 166 additional contact tracers will be hired, for a total of 383. "We will have more than enough people tomorrow morning," Albany County Executive Dan McCoy said May 17. In the phase one reopening, the following types of businesses can reopen: construction, agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, curbside or in-store pickup or drop off retail, manufacturing, and wholesale trades. ProPublica compares New York's response to the coronavirus pandemic with how California officials reacted, and New York does not fare well. The difference is stark: "As of May 15, there were nearly 350,000 COVID-19 cases in New York and more than 27,500 deaths, nearly a third of the nation’s total. The corresponding numbers in California: just under 75,000 cases and slightly more than 3,000 deaths. In New York City, the country’s most populous and densest, there had been just under 20,000 deaths; in San Francisco, the country’s second densest and 13th most populous, there had been 35." Columbia County announced four more cases of COVID-19 on May 17. The Columbia County Department of Health holds coronavirus testing clinics at the John L. Edwards Elementary School in Hudson, Wednesday, May 27 and Tuesday, June 2 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Call 518-828-3358 for more information. Greene County added three cases May 16, and another May 17, and says it will have a temporary testing center set up in Coxsackie sometime soon.