Cuomo: Model Shows 16,000 NYers Could Die from Coronavirus

BY Spectrum News Staff New York City
UPDATED 6:21 AM ET Apr. 03, 2020

ALBANY, N.Y. - Governor Andrew Cuomo on Thursday announced the state could lose up 16,000 people to the coronavirus as the apex approaches.

Speaking to reporters in Albany, Cuomo said the Gates Foundation projection showed the stark challenges facing New York's hospital system.

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New York City Needs 400 Ventilators by Sunday, de Blasio Says

BY Spectrum News Staff New York City
UPDATED 6:00 AM ET Apr. 02, 2020

New York City is running out of ventilators and needs 400 by Sunday — and several thousand more over the course of the next week — Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday afternoon.

About 1 in 4 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 are admitted to the ICU for severe respiratory symptoms. For those patients, a ventilator can be a life-saving tool. Now, doctors predict, we may not have enough ventilators to go around. https://t.co/nJ0bbyyPl3 pic.twitter.com/qOR9rib6Or

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Former NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill Appointed as City's Coronavirus Senior Advisor

BY Gloria Pazmino New York City
UPDATED 6:00 AM ET Apr. 02, 2020

Former NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill has been appointed as the city’s senior coronavirus advisor, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday.

O'Neill, who retired as the city’s top cop late last year and has been working as head of security for Visa, will return to the city to help the administration's response to the ongoing health crisis.

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Why Queens May Have Emerged as New York City's Coronavirus Epicenter

BY Clodagh McGowan Queens
UPDATED 6:13 AM ET Apr. 02, 2020

Queens is not the most populous borough, and it is far from the most densely populated. That's all the more reason as to why the borough's emergence as the center of the city's worsening coronavirus crisis stands out.

Experts say the borough’s demographics might play a role in why the virus has spread so quickly through Queens. The borough is home to many city employees providing essential services — workers, immigrants and low-income service workers.

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I May Never Find Out If I Have Coronavirus

BY Valerie Theofanis New York City
UPDATED 6:14 AM ET Apr. 02, 2020

I may have coronavirus. I may not. It’s become nearly impossible to find out.

“Whether a test result is positive or negative for you, it doesn’t really make a difference.” That’s what I was told by a doctor at New York City Health and Hospitals, the city’s public hospital system, when I followed up on my request to get tested for the virus. This was after three prior attempts to schedule an appointment through both the state and city health departments.

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New York City Adds Ventilators, But Who Will Operate Them?

BY Lydia Hu New York City

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.

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Critics Raise Alarm Over Central Park Field Hospital Nonprofit

BY Lindsay Tuchman New York City

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?

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Sen. Gillibrand Pushes for Release of Federal Funds for New York Hospitals

BY Spectrum News NY1 New York City

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.

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MTA Ridership Has Bottomed, But the Subways Are Anxiously Packed

BY Dan Rivoli New York City

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.

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Pandemic Brings Out Litter Bugs Across City

BY Spectrum News Staff New York City

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.

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Staten Island Amazon Worker Fired After Organizing COVID-19 Walk Out

BY Amanda Farinacci Staten Island

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.

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Acts of Kindness: Making Sure Health Care Workers Are Supplied

BY Kristen Shaughnessy New York City

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.

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Art Funds Created in Response to Coronavirus Pandemic

BY Stephanie Simon Manhattan

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.

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Discusses Pushing the Federal Government for More Coronavirus Support

BY Spectrum News NY1 New York City

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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Rikers Inmates Fear for Their Safety as Coronavirus Cases Climb

BY Courtney Gross New York City

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.

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Beloved Queens Assistant Principal Dies from Coronavirus

BY Clodagh McGowan Queens

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.

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City Closes 10 Playgrounds Over Social Distancing Concerns

BY Shannan Ferry New York City

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.

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Makeshift Hospital to Be Built at National Tennis Center in Effort to Help Elmhurst Hospital

BY Spectrum News Staff and Gloria Pazmino Queens
UPDATED 7:17 PM ET Mar. 31, 2020

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

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State Cancels Most of Spring Break for Schools

BY Jillian Jorgensen New York City
UPDATED 12:55 PM ET Apr. 01, 2020

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.

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