Mayor Bill de Blasio: Before we get started, I just wanted you to see this. This is what one of the hospital beds will look like here in the center opening today. And again, a lot of you were here eight, nine days ago – it was all tennis courts. And I want to just thank everyone who did this work so quick. I'll talk about some of them in a moment, but this is an amazing transformation. When we were here, it felt like, you know, normal times – a sports facility. I heard they were going to change it and get it ready quickly. I didn't expect this much to happen so vividly. I mean, this is amazing that this was all here now, ready to see the first patient coming in today. It’s going to build out quickly. I wanted you to just see that out of a tennis court suddenly we have a hospital and it's a testament to everyone who has been doing this work that they could do this so quickly and so effectively.
I also want to say meeting the medical personnel was very, very moving. These are folks who reminded me of the experience I've had in the last few days meeting the military medical personnel. These are civilians, but they came here because they love New York City and they wanted to help New York City in our hour of need. They came here because they knew this was the epicenter of a national crisis. And in fact, the group that is joining us here, the doctors and nurses, all the medical personnel that are here, they understood exactly that they were coming here to relieve Elmhurst Hospital and Queens Hospital that had been through the toughest stuff of any hospitals. And they wanted to be a part of that fight, they wanted to help where the need was greatest. And I went around and asked people where they're from and we have a lot of people from Florida, South Carolina. We had folks from Oregon, just talked to the guy from Omaha, Nebraska who said he left his wife and three children because he knew – he told them this was something he had to do for his country and for the country's largest city, and he'll be back when this fight is over. But he did it because he cared about saving lives here. And the most interesting of all was a woman from Anchorage, Alaska, who has come all the way here to help folks in need in Queens. So, it was very, very moving.
So, everybody, let me start – there we go – let me start by saying obviously today on Good Friday, it's a very holy time of year for so many New Yorkers. People are celebrating Passover. Today, Good Friday, Easter is this Sunday. For so many New Yorkers, it is a time of year that in normal times we look forward to, we plan the whole year around, and what do we think of, we think of not only faith and not only tradition and things that guide us in good times and bad, but we think of our families. We think of those gatherings that are some of our fondest moments every year. The things we really remember and feel throughout our lives. Every one of us. When I say to you, think about Easter, think about Passover, you have memories going back your whole life, your childhood, and for the first time that I can remember for so many families, we can't do that. And thank God people are using, you know, FaceTime and Skype and Zoom and whatever they can get their hands on to connect with each other. But it's not the same. It's painful to not have that closeness to each other the way we're used to. But there's something about this time of year that I believe is fortifying and strengthening New Yorkers because we're listening to the meaning of those stories, of scripture, and of all the traditions, and of all the family rituals, everything that we've known all our lives in some way prepared us for today. And when you look at faith and when you look at the lessons, so many of them are about people fighting adversity, fighting overwhelming odds, trying to find something in themselves that was strong and good even when faced with massive challenges. And the message through all of our faiths is to love each other, to support each other, to be charitable to each other, to understand each other, to feel empathy for each other. All of the faiths come back to that.
So this is a time that we could be angry. We have every right to be angry and frustrated. We can't do the things we're used to and we need our families right now so much and we can't have that connection the same way and yet all that we've learned from our families, all that we've learned from our faiths and our traditions was telling us exactly how to persevere in a moment like this, to dig deep and find that wellspring of hope and belief and that ability to be there for each other. And that's what New Yorkers are doing. I keep saying the heroes are everyday New Yorkers who are finding a way to do things I think we would have thought literally impossible. The people who turned this tennis center into a hospital in a matter of days, the people who every day are protecting and serving us. The first responders, the health care workers, all these people going so far above and beyond, but it's the everyday people who are helping us turn the tide and fight back this disease. The everyday people deserve credit, to everyday New Yorkers who are taking to heart this common mission, 8.6 million people, the most diverse place on Earth with one goal in common to fight back this disease and save each other. That's what I'm seeing every day. And then to know that help is always coming from the rest of our nation, that only reminds us further that our faith is well placed in each other.
So, here we celebrate against the backdrop of pain, the goodness in each other. And it brings us right back to this place that was a tennis center and now is a hospital. So, we're right here in the epicenter of this disease and we've learned a lot in the last few days. Sometimes we face a challenge or crisis and we say everyone is equally affected. Sometimes a crisis is the great equalizer. Well, that's not true with the coronavirus. Yes, every community is affected. No doubt, every ZIP code, every neighborhood, so many families of every background. True. All of New York is suffering. We all know someone who has been lost. We all know people who are sick. We all know families that are suffering. But in the last few days, the disparities are sharper and clearer than ever before. And unfortunately, this disease has found every problem in our society, every inequality and gone right deep into it and exacerbated it. And so here in Queens we see that folks who are low income are suffering. Folks who have not had enough access to health care because health care is still given out according to how much money you have in this country, and especially immigrant New Yorkers have suffered some because of language barrier, but many I am convinced because they've been pushed away in recent years from the support that they deserve just as human beings and New Yorkers, they've been told to be afraid because of what's happening all over our country. A lot of them had been so fearful, whether it's an ICE raid or any effort to take away their rights, their benefits, the things their family depended on. A lot of folks have turned inward out of fear. There's no question in my mind that's part of what's happening here and part of why this part of Queens has been hit so hard.
Everyone at Elmhurst Hospital, Queens Hospital have been just amazing heroes in this fight. We need to support them all the way through. No one thinks this is going to be over soon. It's going to take a lot more fight but getting them some relief, a place like this, to draw off some of the patients, getting them the military medical personnel who have served so nobly already, all of that is helping us against the backdrop of those horrible disparities. It's helping us to make sure that one thing is fair and equal, that every New Yorker will be treated the same. When they come to get health care, they will get it regardless of ZIP code, regardless of background, regardless of ability to pay, no one will be turned away. That's what we believe in. That is what we are doing.
So here, this originally was going to be a 350-bed facility. The team here has done an outstanding job. They are now going to create a 470-bed facility. Last week we believed there would not be capacity for ICU beds. Now they are adding ICU beds – 20 to begin with. As I said, first wards, beds opening today, first patients coming today, and then they'll build out in the coming days. I want to thank everyone, all the good working people who did the work to get this ready. All our good friends at the Department of Parks and Recreation, a lot of parks workers while being careful and practicing the right distancing, they did the work. A lot of work was needed around the site to get ready and they did it. I want to thank all of them and I want to thank them for also helping all of us to stay safe by the work they're doing in the parks to keep everyone enjoying them, but the right way. I want to thank Danny Zausner, the COO of the Billie Jean King Center who's been a fantastic partner in this and his whole team. Billy Sullivan, the CEO of SLSCO, the contractor that's worked to put this together. Thank you to Billy and his whole team. Obviously, Commissioner Deanne Criswell and everyone at Emergency Management, Dr. Mitch Katz and everyone at Health + Hospitals, and the Department of Design and Construction that jumped in here to help make things happen quickly and they're doing the same at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. Thank you to Lorraine Grillo and Jamie Torres Springer and everyone at DDC.
So, New Yorkers have watched as we've transformed – all of us, the City, the State, FEMA, everyone together transformed sites that we think of in everyday life and now they're all turning into medical sites. The Javits Center, of course, up and running the Coler Center on Roosevelt Island, that was a medical site, but one that was not full, now filling up rapidly, relieving the pressure on other H + H facilities. This site in Queens, the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal next week. All of this is building capacity. Now I want to emphasize, even though we are seeing some progress, and we are, we don't know what comes next. With this horrible disease one thing we've learned is to expect the unexpected. So I warned yesterday, you never know when you get a resurgence, you never know if it doesn't move in a straight line. So, we want capacity ready, no matter what and let us pray we don't need some of these facilities to be as much for medical use. Where are we going ahead to those phases I described yesterday with low transmission or no transmission, you need a lot of capacity to quarantine people and isolate people to make that work. So facilities like this, if they're not needed for medical, will be turned into quarantine and isolation facilities to help people get through their own experience with the disease while making sure we don't infect the other members of their family or the people in their life.
So this good work is going to help us hopefully only for a limited time on the medical side, but very much in our progress in fighting this disease as we go into the next phase of low-level transmission. Again, we're not there yet. We're not going to ever suggest we're there until we're there, but we're going to be planning for that phase and this facility will be a part of that phase too. It was said throughout, the goal is to always make sure if we need to, our hospitals can keep building out more and more ICU capacity. They've been doing that. They're going to keep doing that until we're sure that it's not needed. And other kinds of patients would come to places like this.
Now, yesterday I talked about the fact that if we're going to make that next big move – maybe it starts in May, maybe it starts in June – to that low level of transmission, we will need testing and we will need a lot of testing and we'll need more testing than we have right now. And the federal government must step up. We must have not only the antibody testing, which is certainly valuable. We need the traditional coronavirus testing to be able to really implement a strategy to achieve low level transmission and start to get us back to normal. So, I'm going to keep calling on the federal government to focus and produce large scale widespread testing for this country so we can get to the next phase, so we can really start to normalize over time.
But once again, while we're waiting for the federal government to act, we see others coming forward. We've seen private companies come forward in an amazing way. And we're also seeing our colleagues around the country in public life come forward. And this is a beautiful story – a guy I've gotten to know, he's part of the leadership of the U. S. Conference of Mayors, so I've worked with him on the leadership body of the conference of mayors for years now and really like him and really respect him. Mayor Jim Brainard of Carmel, Indiana – this man has been mayor for a long time in Carmel, Indiana. He's someone I respect greatly for what he’s achieved. I've been to his city. He's done amazing things there. In the spirit of bipartisanship, I will let you know that he is a Republican and someone who, as we talk together, our partisan differences melt away all the time. He's someone that I just respect as a good public servant who cares about people. Well, he made the great decision to make sure that his city would help New York City. And we've seen that before, we saw that the Governor of Oregon, Kate Brown; the Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, helped make sure that more ventilators would be available for New York. Well now, Carmel, Indiana steps up and they're sending us some of the components that will be needed to provide 50,000 coronavirus tests to New Yorkers that'll be coming over the next few weeks. We’re going to need other components to make it work, and we talked about this yesterday, used the analogy of making a cup of coffee with cream and sugar – we’re going to need all the different pieces. But what Jim is sending us is going to help us immensely. And with the other pieces in place, we'll be able to reach 50,000 New Yorkers. So, Jim, and everyone in Carmel, I want to thank you. It is wonderful to see the support from the heartland of our country. You're doing something really important for New York City. We're all feeling it, especially at this holiday season. We are so appreciative for your wonderful kind gesture and it's going to help save lives here in New York City. So, God bless you all. Let's see if our federal government can be as effective as Mayor Jim Brainard in Carmel, Indiana in getting us testing.
Another important piece of the puzzle will be thermometers. Going forward, as we move into lower-level transmission thermometers are big part of it, because you will do a lot more monitoring of people. But in the meantime, we are delivering more and more thermometers to our agencies, our city agencies to make sure we're constantly testing. Folks are on the front line, doing such vital works – so there’s thermometer's now that have been delivered to our Department of Education enrichment centers for the children of first responders and health care workers. Thermometers have been delivered to the Department of Corrections; to the Administration for Children's Services for the work they do, including the juvenile detention work; to our 9-1-1 call centers, which is so important, because they're keeping so much running; obviously, for first responders as well – a central goal to make sure they get whatever support they need. So, today we're delivering thermometers to every NYPD precinct and headquarters and command office, to every firehouse at the FDNY, to every sanitation garage. And we'll keep delivering more and more as we get them. We’re getting in a big supply, going forward, and we've got to keep getting them out around so we can maximize that kind of monitoring and support people.
One other point, and this is about – I've talked about the way the coronavirus attacks our health, but also hurts us, fights us in another way. It's taken away our livelihoods. So many New Yorkers are struggling right now. I hear from people all the time who are, right now, running out of the little money they had. The last paycheck is long gone. So, we must protect people. We must protect people when it comes to their health and we have to protect them when it comes to just being able to live life, to have a roof over your head, to have enough food to eat. We've got to protect people in every way and we will in this city. We will not let any New Yorker go without the help they need. So, I have to say, when you think about the reality of people just not having enough money for food, for medicine, for the rent, and this many people, hundreds of thousands, unemployed at the same time – my heart goes out to every family dealing with this pain, because just weeks ago your life was pretty normal and then bang, it's gone. And the shock, the pain, but also the fear – I'm hearing the fear everywhere. People are literally wondering, am I going to be able to stay in my home? Am I going to be able to get enough food? So, my message is we will keep everybody – keep a roof over your head, protect you, make sure you have the food to eat. We will do that. The City of New York will have your back. We're making sure there's no evictions, and that's a start, but we have to go farther. So, I had asked the State of New York to consider for over 2 million New Yorkers who are in rent stabilized apartments, and that's governed by a Rent Guidelines Board – I asked the State as a legal matter to suspend that board so we could achieve a rent freeze. There were complex legal matters and the State wasn't sure if that was the right approach, so I have made the decision that we will proceed with the Rent Guidelines Board process. We'll do it all remotely. We'll do it quickly in the coming weeks, but I am calling upon the Rent Guidelines Board today to issue a rent freeze to ensure that New Yorkers that are going through the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression and were covered by the jurisdiction of the Rent Guidelines Board – again, that's over 2 million of us – that all of those good New Yorkers who are struggling right now get a rent freeze, because, Lord knows, people do not need another burden at this moment. And I want to see the Rent Guidelines Board act quickly, to say the least. If you look at the facts – and I do give the board credit, they've always looked at the facts, the objective facts – look at the facts, the greatest economic crisis in generations and hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers with no livelihood overnight. I think the facts are clear and we need that rent freeze and we need it now.
I also say again to the State of New York, please act quickly. Let New Yorkers who can't afford the rent pay it with their security deposit. That's going to take a legal change. I'm asking the State to do that right away, so folks who have no money can draw upon that security deposit to pay the rent right now. By the way, for a lot of landlords, they would applaud that too, because if the tenant has no money, they have no money and, therefore, the landlord can't get the money they need to pay the bills either. Let's unleash those security deposits for the good of all.
Let me close, and I'll say a few words in Spanish, and then we'll take questions from the media, but close with this. And we talked about faith in the beginning, I talked about what the season means to all of us, people of different faiths. But it's also clear, it's a moment that tries us and challenges us so deeply and makes us fearful and makes us doubtful. It's a moment that tests our faith, but whatever your faith is, whatever you believe, whatever your values, it's a moment to lean into them even more strongly. This is a week where we reach milestones we could never have imagined – 5,000 New Yorkers lost – so many more than we even lost on our worst day of 9/11 – a number we literally can hardly imagine. And every single one of the people we lost, a human story, a family grieving. At some point today, we will get to the point of 100,000 cases that have occurred in New York City – 100,000 cases of coronavirus, a disease that literally did not exist six months ago in the experience of human beings all over the globe, and now 100,000 New Yorkers infected. And that's only the ones we know about. It's likely that hundreds of thousands more have already experienced this disease that we don't even know have gone through it. But, thank God, so many – the vast, vast, vast majority survived. So, it's a moment where we could be doubtful. No one could be blamed for being doubtful. And we don't have a roadmap here – there's no one who has a roadmap, this is the great unknown. But our faith, our belief, our values, our humanity should continue to guide us. And what I've seen these last weeks, I don't think New Yorkers could have done anything better or more heroic than what they've done. I think every one of you should be proud of how you all have answered the call in one way or another. I think people all over the world are looking at New York City with renown – with renewed admiration. People all over the world are feeling a new respect, a new admiration, a new love for New York City. I think we've always been a place that people felt something special for. There's always been a sense that New York City was an expression of the best of humanity, but what all of you have done is proven even more deeply and the world watches with admiration, the world is applauding. Let's show the entire world that we will complete this mission, that we will stay true to the lessons we've learned, we'll go even more intensely into the work we're doing together to protect each other, and that's how we'll come out of this together.
