NEW YORK - Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday announced new measures to help health care workers deal with the physical and mental strain of the pandemic.

The effort, done in conjunction with the Defense Department, will be led by First Lady Chirlane McCray and will include military trauma specialists to assess the entire system, implement new programs and tailor tools to each facility, train over 1,000 NYC Health + Hospital staff in combat stress management and assess personnel individually.

"We have to face this head on," First Lady McCray said.

The efforts are expected to be fully operational by June and will extend beyond the pandemic to provide health care workers much needed relief.

As part of the initiative, a 24/7 behavioral health helpline for H+H staff exists under the NYC H+H Helping Healers Heal Program that will offer one on one peer and group support and wellness rounds at all facilities.

The city will offer antibody tests to over 150,000 health care workers and first responders, says the mayor. This will help identify past infections but also provide confidence they overcame COVID-19. The goal is to begin testing next week, and test all within a month.

This effort is in partnership with the US Department of Health and Human Services, and the CDC. The mayor says this will be provided for free as the federal government will be covering the costs.

The number in ICUs for suspected COVID-19 dropped to 734 patients, down from 745 as of April 26. Those who tested positive for coronavirus both declined from April 26 to April 27, says the mayor. The number admitted to hospitals for suspected COVID-19 ticked up to 136 on April 27 vs. 112 on the 26th.

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