There are about 7,700 licensed respiratory therapists and technicians throughout the state. According to data from the American Association for Respiratory Care, New York has the second lowest number of licensed therapists per capita of any state in the country, behind only Minnesota.

Academics and clinicians say there was a nationwide shortage of trained respiratory therapists before the pandemic. A growing need to treat patients critically ill with COVID-19 will only exasperate the need, they say.

Angelo Piro, 87, was a Korean War veteran, a longtime newspaper pressman, and a fixture of Staten Island’s community theater scene.

To my husband, Andrew, he was "Poppy." And considering how long Andrew and I have been together, he was Poppy to me, too.

Typically bustling this time of year with winter weary New Yorkers, it’s unusually empty in Central Park. Now, a large portion of the empty space is being filled by a row of 14 stark white medical tents.

The tents, lined up along the East Meadow near Fifth Avenue and 99th Street across the street from Mt. Sinai Hospital, are being used as an overflow medical center, and were erected in a mere 48 hours by the non-profit charity Samaritan’s Purse. Mayor de Blasio announced the Christian disaster-relief organization would be setting up shop in the park to treat patients with confirmed cases of coronavirus from the hospital, but some critics wonder: will all patients be treated equally?

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand joined Errol Louis by Skype to discuss the urgent need for the Trump administration to release funds allocated for New York hospitals as part of the $2 trillion coronavirus aid package.

She also explained how federal officials are making decisions about how much states will receive as hospitals face a surge of patients and a shortage of supplies.

NEW YORK - Transit ridership has skidded to unimaginable lows. And yet, the remaining straphangers endure crowded trains and platforms because the MTA has cut service.

It's adding another level of anxiety for essential workers like Emy Ramirez, who takes the subway from the Bronx to her hospital job in Queens.

NEW YORK - A new type of littering has emerged during the pandemic as more people wear protective gear.

Instead of throwing out masks and gloves in the trash, many are throwing them on the ground.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Christian Smalls helped to organize Monday's walkout by workers at Amazon's fulfillment center on Staten Island, protesting the company's response to the coronavirus crisis. Shortly after he got home he learned he was fired.

"It’s blatant retaliation," Smalls told NY1 over the phone.

We can only hope those on the front lines can feel the love being extended their way as they take on this pandemic head on.

Cole Riley heads up Founders Give. He and his volunteers have rallied the food and beverage industry. They will be delivering 65,000 products to city hospitals this week, filling up the break rooms and the lounges to make sure doctors, nurses and other employees have what they need.

There's a reason The Metropolitan Museum of Art welcomes about seven million visitors each year and why after 9-11, the city asked it to reopen quickly.

“The museum was called by the mayor who said, ‘you need to open on Thursday. You need to be there for people,’ and you know when we got there, there were lines waiting to get in. People needed that inspiration and they will need that again and we will be there for that,” said Tom Schuler, Chief Government Affairs Officer of the MET.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's district includes parts of Queens, a borough that has been extremely hard hit by the new coronavirus as it’s seen seen an overwhelming surge in cases at Elmhurst Hospital. She joined Errol Louis by Skype to discuss her efforts to get more relief for New Yorkers from the federal government, and her calls for rent relief.

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Errol Louis discussed the dire consequences of the coronavirus pandemic on New Yorkers who have developmental disabilities with Marco Damiani, the CEO of AHRC NYC, which provides crucial support services to nearly 15,000 people.

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They are locked up as a virus spreads. The phone is the only link to the outside world.

For days, we have been taking calls with detainees on Rikers Island or other city jails. Many of them were parole violators — some didn’t show up for a parole appointment and were sent back to jail.

For the students and staff at the Mary Louis Academy, Joseph Lewinger was their biggest cheerleader and the heart of the private all-girl’s school in Jamaica Estates, Queens.

“Everybody loved him. Everybody just filtered to him because he was such a positive energy,” said Jenny Limberg Durkin, an art teacher at the Mary Louis Academy.

The gates are locked and the equipment sits unused at both playgrounds inside Fort Greene Park. They’re just two of ten playgrounds officials have closed down citywide due to crowding and a lack of compliance with social distancing.

"They're kind of pulling out all the stops, closing things down, so to me, it makes sense you don’t necessarily need a playground to go play," said one New Yorker.

ALBANY, N.Y. - Governor Andrew Cuomo says the state on Monday saw the highest number of hospital admissions for any single day related to the coronavirus.

According to Cuomo, 1,412 patients were admitted statewide Monday; 771 people were discharged.

A new makeshift emergency hospital is being built in a Queens tennis stadium in order to help a hospital that has been at the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis.

A 350-bed hospital facility is under construction at the @USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center as New York City continues to respond to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Learn more ➡️ https://t.co/puLck7HwvQ pic.twitter.com/czVEDIjZB2

Christina Jeffers is a single mother who cleans office buildings for a living. She lost her job because of the coronavirus pandemic and now doesn't know how she's going to pay the rent for her Elmhurst, Queens apartment.

"I don't have money for rent,” Jeffers said.

Governor Andrew Cuomo's executive order on school closures is spelling the end of spring break.

The state Education Department issued guidance to school districts Monday saying the order, which waives a state requirement for schools to hold 180 days of instruction a year, means that schools should offer remote instruction every weekday between April 1 and April 14, even if that day was supposed to be part of spring break.