Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that New York was the "exception" to states that have reopened and are seeing spiking cases of COVID-19.

He said during his daily briefing Thursday that cases are continuing to go down, even as all regions have entered reopening phases. He announced Wednesday that five regions in Central New York will begin Phase 3 Thursday.

Cuomo says the reason for the drop is because the state's reopening is "based on numbers" and "because New Yorkers have been smart."

Gov. Cuomo says New York is performing around 50,000 COVID-19 tests a day and will continue to watch testing metrics to inform the reopening process.

He also warned businesses to follow guidelines, saying bars and restaurants who don't will lose their liquor license.

Harvard Global Health Institute Dr. Ashish Jha says there could be 100,000 new COVID-19 deaths by September.

"Right now have between 800 and 1,000 people dying every single day in America and all of the data, all of the models suggest that things are going to get worse," says Jha.

Northwell Health's Dr. Mark Jarrett says he believes numbers will continue to sporadically spike over the summer. Here on Long Island, he says to be cautious.

"It's not going to be life as we knew it a year ago in the summer," says Jarrett. "But it certainly can become much more tolerable as things start to loosen up."

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