State Senator James Skoufis is making a full recovery from COVID-19, after coming down with it last month.

“This was the sickest I've ever felt in my life," said Skoufis.

He is a healthy 32-year-old, yet he was hit hard by the coronavirus, having almost every by the book symptom.

“If this virus could really wack me as hard as it did, I can really understand now how much havoc is wrecked with a person that does have underlying health problems or is frail and in a nursing home," Skoufis said.

He says experiencing the coronavirus first hand, re-enforces his position on re-opening New York and says we have to listen to public health experts.  

“We have to take care of the public health emergency before we can take care of the economic emergency," Skoufis said.

Right now, there is no exact timeframe for the phases of re-opening the state and Skoufis says in regard to the regional idea, we have to be careful. 

“Because you open up, let's say Orange County, Ulster County, Sullivan County, and now all of a sudden you’ve got thousands of Rockland county residents just driving up to the Orange County to go to bars and restaurants and getting their hair cut and doing all sorts of things and that puts orange county communities in danger once again," Skoufis said.