Public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said the latest move toward loosening restrictions is because of the past couple weeks of progress in COVID-19 metrics following a third surge that began in March. Both the seven-day rolling average of daily positive cases and the positivity rate have declined, to 527 and 4.7%, respectively, according to Wednesday’s data. The first figure still isn’t ideal, Arwady said, as she prefers caseload under 400. But the intensive care unit occupation also beginning to stabilize at a seven-day average of 145 beds per day as of Tuesday was “the ticket to reopening,” she said.