New York City officials hope to begin a phased reopening of the city by the first half of June, allowing construction to resume and retailers to reopen with some restrictions, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday.

The state has outlined seven health indicators, including available hospital beds and steadily declining COVID-19 hospitalizations, that regions must meet in order to begin reopening. New York City has currently met three of its seven indicators.

"There's a real subtle balance that needs to be struck but if the question is do we believe we’ll meet all seven state indicators, yes. When? The first half of June,”De Blasio said at a news briefing. "You can't guarantee anything in life.”

New York City has seen a 14-day decline in net hospitalizations, a 14-day decline in hospital deaths and it's testing more than 30 people per 1,000 residents every month — meeting three of the state’s seven criteria to begin the first phase of reopening. In order to meet the guidelines, the city must further drive down new hospitalizations, increase the percent of total hospital beds available and increase the share of ICU beds available.

It's also in the process of hiring contact tracers to track new infections and all of their contacts — the last preventative measure needed to begin reopening some local businesses.

"We clearly are making progress. There are several that we've met ... There's been clear progress on the number of hospital beds and the number of ICU beds,”de Blasio said. "Those are two areas where we need to go farther but we're getting close to those goals and I think there's a point in the first half of June when we'll meet those.”

The city expects to meet the requirement that it have 30 contact tracers per 1,000 residents by June, de Blasio said.

"We're confident we're going to get there given the number of contact tracers we're bringing on regularly,”de Blasio said.

Phase one of reopening will allow regions to resume manufacturing, construction and agricultural operations and retailers to reopen with limitations, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo previously said.

SOURCE: CNBC