Many New York State regions officially entered Phase 1 of reopening on May 15th, including the Finger Lakes (Orleans, Genesee, Wyoming counties and Rochester) and the Southern Tier (Steuben, Chemung, Tioga, Broome counties, to name a few).

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Many local governments had been preparing for Friday as the start of Phase 2, but that was put on hold temporarily on Thursday when Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a radio interview with WAMC FM, that "international experts" are reviewing the data to see if that's a good move, according to WIVB.

“We have international experts who go through it and we’ll follow the data,” Cuomo said on WAMC FM. “The reopening in the first five regions ends tomorrow. When the reopening of Phase One ends, we’ll give the experts all the data. It is posted on the web, but let them analyze it. And if they say we should move forward, we’ll move forward.”

According to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, many county executives across the regions looking to move into Phase 2 on Friday were shocked by the news.

"Look, the governor can make that comment to someone on the radio but we can’t get a call from the governor’s office?," said Chemung County Executive Chris Moss. "You know what, we’re opening tomorrow.”

There's no word on how long the "experts" review would take.

It's still unclear how this affects Western New York, which many people hoped would start Phase 2 this upcoming Tuesday, although Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said that remains to be seen.

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