MAYOR DE BLASIO HOLDS COVID-19 AVAILABILITY - May 1, 2020

    Mayor Bill de Blasio: So, understanding that May is here, we also know that with that comes the warmer weather, and that's what's predicted for this weekend. We all are noting that the weather reports are talking about temperatures in the seventies. So, the spring fever, we're all going to feel it more and more, and particularly our young people are restless, and I don't blame them, and it's been a tough few months, and now the warm weather is going to pull at them. So, the truth is May can be a great month for the city in terms of fighting back and really starting to turn the tide on this disease, but it's going to require us to be tough and disciplined, and the warmer weather will make that harder. But I've seen so much from all of you already, so much achievement in fighting this disease. I have no doubt that we all will buckle down together and get it right. The bottom line is we cannot let up now, and the indicators that we go over every day are telling us a really important story, a good story, but a cautionary tale too, and a lot of information that helps us understand why we can't take our foot off the gas just yet.

Okay, so what do the indicators tell us when they look at them in big picture? The first thing they tell us is don't count your chickens before they're hatched. That this virus is tragically still alive and well, and living in this city. We have not beaten it, and we should not take it lightly. It's a fearsome enemy, and we need to understand this enemy if we're going to beat it ultimately. Today when I go over the indicators, you will see some good things for sure, we've seen that many days, but you have to put it in perspective of what's happening around us. So, yesterday in New York City, 2,637 confirmed new cases of the Corona virus in the five boroughs. That is a huge number. The number of people we lost yesterday, 202 New Yorkers lost their lives yesterday to the Corona virus. These numbers, when we look at them compared to where we were a few weeks ago, maybe we feel a little better, but we can't forget that each and every one of these cases, each and every one of these numbers is a human being. And we can't for a moment, forget what we would have thought about this. If I said these numbers to you three, four months ago, it would have been staggering that that's what happened in a single day in New York City. It would have been staggering. We can't get numb here. We have to realize that numbers like that tell us there's still a real fight ahead. Even if we're going to be tugged by that warm weather, even if we want it to be over, and Lord knows we all want it to be over. We got to look at those realities square in the eye.

So, let's talk about the indicators in the context of a longer period of time. So, on indicator number one, daily number of people admitted to hospitals for suspected COVID-19, well this chart speaks volumes. It's very striking, and you see it and you get very hopeful, and you should be hopeful. But you should always be sober about the larger reality at the same time. So, this is how many more patients we needed to care for each day in our hospitals. Now, when you look at the progress, the peak that we experienced with this disease, we now know that on March 31st 850 new cases one day, 850 new admissions to the hospital for suspected COVID-19. On April 11th when we started putting out these indicators publicly, so basically three weeks ago, went down to 383 that's great. By April 22nd last Friday, 176, by today 136, fantastic. That's the good news. Real progress. However, remember the numbers I told you a moment ago. Overall, the number of new positive tests, the number of people who have passed away, and that 136 we feel good about that number, but we still have to remember why we shouldn't feel good about that number, because that's still the number of people every single new day that we're seeing go in to the hospital.

Now, we've talked a lot about test and trace, and we're going to keep talking about it. This is going to be the game changer. The ability to go after each of these cases and find everyone else that might be affected and test widely, and we're building that up rapidly. But you can see, the numbers we're talking about now, how daunting a task that is, you're still talking about thousands of new positives each day. It just puts in perspective how much we have to do.

Now, let's go to indicator number two, the daily number of people in ICU’s across our public hospitals for suspected COVID-19. Now, what does this tell us? Well, it tells us a lot of New Yorkers are still fighting for their lives. And it tells us that our public hospitals, which were born the brunt this crisis, are still experiencing a lot of strain. And we need to get to the day where there are almost no New Yorkers, one day we hope zero New Yorkers fighting for their lives. And we have to get to the day where our public hospitals can rest assured that they can handle whatever is being thrown at them, including all the many, many challenges they deal in normal with in normal times. So, this number is encouraging again, because there's some decrease, but you'll notice the difference between this chart and the last chart. There's decrease, but nowhere near as sharp a decrease. This causes real pause. You know, when we launched these indicators three weeks ago, our ICU’s, our intensive care units and our public hospitals were basically at double their normal capacity. So, there's been improvement since then, but still not back to normal. And again, listen to the numbers, you all like progress, but then you still have to listen to the raw number. April 14th was the day where we saw the most people in these ICU’s, 887. By last Friday was 786; by today, 704 – steady progress, obviously, but not sharp, sharp progress and 704 people is a lot of people.

Okay. Indicator number three, number of percent, percent of people who tested positive for COVID-19. Well, this obviously is the indicator that talks about how widespread this disease is in our City and we're going to get a better and better picture as we add more and more testing. So, this is a great story, the citywide percentage is really improving pretty steadily on April 11th when we started the indicators 58 percent, by last Friday 30 percent, today 23 percent – that's fantastic, a very, very hopeful sign. And the public health lab, which again is a particularly rigorous standard, we saw a real progress today, this is exciting to see as well. When we launched 78% of their tests were coming back positive, by last Friday 52 percent, by this morning 17 percent, now that's fantastic. Now, this number has gone up and down quite a bit so I want to note it's everyday based on the facts of that day it's been as you can see a much choppier pattern. So again, we should never get overconfident but we're happy to see this progress, it certainly shows we are still decelerating and decelerating is the name of the game and that gets us to that point where we can do that big handoff to test and trace and then take the next big step. We still cannot say with assurance that we're out of the woods when it comes to that point about plateauing. Right now, it looks really good, but we are not to a point where we can say we are absolutely sure we won't have some kind of level off and we do not want that level off. That prolongs this agony we're all dealing with cooped up in our homes and everything else, so these numbers we need to keep pushing down steadily.

So, all of that will get us where we need to go, and I want to see us rapidly make progress in the month of May. That big apparatus building and these numbers continuing to go down and we'll go over the indicators regularly and if they keep moving the right direction, we're going to make more, we have more and more ability for that handoff to go well. And then to get to that low-level transmission period, that is the gateway to starting toward normalcy. These numbers go in the wrong direction, we're going to stay tight, we're going to stay in a situation where we do not allow the disease to reassert. So, real transparency here and a real warning about what happens if we slip up, but a very positive reminder of how close we're getting to the point where we can start to make even more progress. So, today's daily indicators after all that context, today's daily indicators show you again just how it's still way too gray a situation and it's something we have to fight harder to overcome. Kind of a mix progress in some ways for sure and progress particularly with the public health lab, which has been— toughest measure but not overall progress that we need to see. So, on the first indicator daily number of people admitted to hospitals for suspected COVID that went up. It went up only slightly 129 to 136 it's not horrible, but it's not what we need, we need it to go down. The daily number of people in ICU across Health and Hospitals for suspected COVID went down but only by one 705 to 704, 704 is not a good number, progress but not the kind we need. The percent of people who tested positive, unfortunately that one went up for citywide 22 percent to 23 percent but again a very small increase. So, we've got a lot of effective break-evens here. The good news, and this is very good news because it is the toughest measure, is that the public health lab went down and it went down markedly from 36 percent to 17 percent. So, that is the hopeful the hopeful reality today.

Now, we're going to do a lot of things in this next phase in May and when I say phase, I don't mean yet getting to low-level transmission, we're going to have to earn that, we'll have to fight for that. But I mean that May— May becomes the time, if March was the time we were dealing with that horrifying unforeseen, unheard of up— swing in this disease, April was the month we were beating back from the worst and making real progress. May is the month where we do something transcendent, particularly because we build up test and trace. Now we're going to use every conceivable tool. Yesterday, I talked about the fact that we're going to have stronger enforcement efforts, not just the NYPD but by a variety of other agencies that we're going to have people out there on top of enforcement, educating, providing the face coverings for free. We're going to do all sorts of innovative things to keep people helping each other through this crisis and supporting them and pushing them. And of course, enforcing, we’re going to use all the tools creatively and assertively to keep making progress. So, whenever we have a new tool, we're going to talk about it and the impact it can make.

So, now, I'm going to talk about the open street’s initiative, and this is something I want to thank the city council for their partnership. And it's been worked on, not just with the council but with of course, the NYPD and Department of Transportation. The open streets are going to be another way we help encourage social distancing, because the warmer weather tells us we're going to have a new challenge and we combine the fact that we have to meet that challenge by understanding where people are going to be. Again, we're going to require social distance distancing face coverings and people only being out for just a period of time they need for their exercise and then get back. But we do know warmer weather, it's going to draw more people, that's obvious. And we also know that, thank God, the NYPD and all our agencies are getting back their personnel and really great numbers. So, they're regaining their strength in terms of being able to enforce farther and farther across the City and better and better. So, with the city council, we agreed that we would put together a plan to open 40 miles of streets in May, a hundred miles overall in the course of this crisis. And the focus would be on those streets in their parks because we expect them to attract a lot of people in the warmer weather. We want to expand the parks, if you will, by opening up these streets. And of course, the hardest hit neighborhoods, the place where we've seen this disease have the most devastating effect. So today we'll announce the first seven miles over seven miles in fact, of these open streets and these will all be opening on Monday. 4.5 miles are inside parks, they are areas that will now be devoted to pedestrians, bicyclists. 4.5 miles and that's made up of Callahan-Kelly Park, Forest Hill Park, Fort Tryon Park, Flushing Meadows Park, Grant Park and Silver Lake Park. And then 2.7 miles of streets that are adjacent near parks that'll help to expand and affect the parks. And that will be a Carl Schurz Park, Court Square, Highbridge Park, Lieutenant William T. Triangle, Prospect Park, Stapleton Waterfront Park and Williamsbridge Oval.

Now, I'm going to close in a moment, but I want to talk about something very, very sad. This really, I heard about it late last night and it really hit me. We have lost someone who came to our aid, to our defense and there's something particularly painful when someone does the right thing; a fellow American comes from across the country to try and help the people in New York City and while working to save lives here, gives his own life. It's very painful, it's heroic. It's something we honor, but it's very, very painful that we've lost this good man. Paramedic Paul Cary from Aurora, Colorado, part of the FEMA relief effort has died of the coronavirus. For three decades he served the people of Aurora and then came very bravely to serve us – he did not have to do it - he made the choice to come here to save lives. And remember when he, and so many other paramedics and EMTs showed up from around the country, it was a very, very tough moment; we were having the highest number of 9-1-1 calls in the history of New York City and the disease was growing and its impact and lives were being lost and we needed every hand on deck and Paul Cary's one of those people who came. And I got to tell you it just hurts that such a good man has made the ultimate sacrifice for us. So, to the Cary family, we honor, we honor Paul’s sacrifice; we honor what Paul did. He clearly saved lives while he was here. We honor all of you. We grieve with you and we're going to find a way to create a special memorial for Paul here in New York City to remember all those who came to our defense; the paramedics, the EMTs, members of the military - so many good people - doctors, nurses from around the country. So many people came to help, but Paul gave his life for us and we're going to honor him in a particular way. So, everyone, look, the – it's a reminder of the sacrifices that we've seen so many public servants, so many people who serve you have been lost. We've lost four of our own members of EMS. We've lost 10 members of the FDNY overall. First responders, heroes have been lost, healthcare workers, doctors, nurses, everyone who threw themselves into this battle. So right now, we need to be there for their families. We need to be there for the colleagues who are hurting. Imagine how tough it is to be fighting still this battle every day and have lost someone who served with you. We will do a lot to support their families and we will do a lot to remember them and honor them, but I want you to remember, if you really want to honor these heroes, then it's up to you to stick to the rules we're living by now. Every time you do, you help stop the spread of the disease. Every time you help stop the spread of the disease, you're going to save lives and the lives you save could include our first responders and our healthcare heroes. So I want to make it personal for you. I don't want anyone separating your own actions from what it means for the people around you. I want you to take it personally and realize that if we do what we're capable of doing, we're going to save a lot of lives and every time we don't, we could endanger someone like Paul and we can't have that.

So, look, we've talked today about the real progress we've made and the challenges ahead. The good news here is we are winning this fight. There's no question in my mind we're winning this fight. The bad news is we have not yet won - that's the honest truth. Declaring victory prematurely has been proven down through history to be a very dangerous thing. And when anyone from the President on down talks about liberating a city or a state without making sure that the facts support it and the protections are in place for people's health and safety, that's not liberation – that's actually damning people – that's damning them potentially to their deaths and we will not allow that here in New York City. We're going to come back, but we’re going to come back safely and 8.6 million people together have been doing something extraordinary. We got some more to do, but I have absolute faith we will get there together.

MAYOR DE BLASIO AND CHANCELLOR CARRANZA ANNOUNCE “LET’S LEARN NYC!,” A NEW TELEVISION PROGRAM FROM WNET TO SUPPORT REMOTE LEARNING

Beginning Monday, May 4, the new educational public television program for young learners will air weekdays at 11:00AM EST on THIRTEEN

  Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza announced the launch of Let’s Learn NYC!, a new educational public television program produced by the WNET Group in partnership with the New York City Department of Education (DOE) featuring lessons for children in 3K through second grade that will supplement remote learning.

“We’re doing everything we can to make this unprecedented situation a little brighter for our youngest New Yorkers. This partnership will bring entertaining educational opportunities directly to homes across New York City,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.  

"As our city's students continue their education at home, it is more important than ever that we keep them engaged, inspired to learn, and supported," said First Lady Chirlane McCray. “This new partnership will provide young New Yorkers and their families with a fun, new way to learn. We are grateful to our partners at WNET for helping us bring additional educational programming to children across the city." 

“This new program will provide even more fun and innovative learning opportunities for students and families to engage with together,” said Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza. “Every weekday, our youngest learners will be able to participate in story time, interactive lessons, and hands-on projects all from the safety and comfort of their own homes. We hope to see you there!”

“Our educational mission is central to who we are,” said Neal Shapiro, President and CEO of the WNET Group. “We are proud to partner with the NYCDOE to bring quality educational programming to kids at home. This program is our way of supporting our community during this challenging time in our city and country’s history.”

School buildings are closed, but across the city, families and educators are working tirelessly to ensure students continue their education. Episodes will air on weekdays at 11:00AM EST on THIRTEEN starting Monday, May 4 and will continue through the end of the school year. The episodes will also be available to livestream at thirteen.org/live. 

Let’s Learn NYC! will be hosted by DOE instructional leaders and coaches with expertise in teaching young learners. Educators will film segments from their homes using their phones, tablets, or laptops, and send them to THIRTEEN to be edited, scheduled and aired. Programming will offer age-appropriate content that is aligned to standards and lessons for early childhood education and includes foundational reading skills, literacy, math, social studies, and science.

Literacy lessons will focus on foundational skills such as phonics and fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension, and writing. Each episode will include a “story time” that helps students connect the literacy instruction to important facets of their lives. Other content area lessons will focus on children having fun with numbers, discovering science, and finding out about the world around them. The broadcast will also include “Parenting Minutes,” short videos produced by The WNET Group with information on social-emotional and early childhood learning for families to use with their children.

Let’s Learn NYC! will be broadcast commercial-free on THIRTEEN, New York City’s PBS station, which is available for free to nearly all City residents. The program will also be available to livestream on the station’s website. Following each broadcast, each episode and supplemental learning materials will also be made available on schools.nyc.gov and thirteen.org/letslearn. Archived videos will include English and Spanish captions.

This program is made possible by the Fund for Public Schools’ NYC Schools COVID-19 Response Effort, enabling public-private partnerships to support school communities directly during this time. 

“We’re proud to launch this new partnership with funding provided by caring donors who have stepped up to ensure the well-being and continued learning of our 1.1 million students,” said Julie L. Shapiro, Chief Executive Officer of the Fund for Public Schools. “This daily broadcast will bring joy into the homes of many of our families, while providing high-quality programming that will reinforce foundational literacy skills for our youngest learners. Tune in, and Let’s Learn NYC!”

“The COVID-19 pandemic has inspired New York’s parents and educators to get creative to keep children engaged in learning while they are outside of the classroom,” said Board of Regents Chancellor Betty A. Rosa.  “By bringing educational programing directly into homes, WNET is making it more accessible and even easier for children to participate.  I truly hope students take advantage of this remarkable opportunity.”

OPEN STREETS: MAYOR DE BLASIO AND SPEAKER JOHNSON NAME FIRST STREETS TO BE USED FOR SOCIAL DISTANCING AMONG PEDESTRIANS AND CYCLISTS

Over seven miles in all five boroughs; Streets will be open each day to pedestrians and cyclists — with limited vehicle traffic — from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. starting Monday

  In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Speaker Corey Johnson today announced the first group of streets that would be opened to pedestrians and cyclists every day starting next week, when spring temperatures are forecasted to arrive. The streets, spanning over seven miles and reaching all five boroughs, are part of the Open Streets initiative designed to provide greater social distancing among New Yorkers.

“New Yorkers deserve safe ways to enjoy the warm weather while we fight through this crisis, and I’m proud of my team for jumping into action with this first group of open streets,” said Mayor de Blasio. “Our parks have played a critical role in maintaining public health during this crisis. But we cannot afford to have a high demand for open space create unhealthy situations. That’s why we’re opening streets and offering more options for New Yorkers to get outside safely.”

"Today is a great first step and an exciting day for an entire city starved of adequate open space,” said Council Speaker Corey Johnson. The Council is glad our efforts on this initiative have brought us this far, and we are eager to work with our colleagues in government, community groups, and our neighbors to keep expanding this program in a safe, effective, and enjoyable way. While we continue our fight against this awful virus, we need to give people the space they need to maintain proper social distancing, and I'm glad we're making progress towards that goal.”

“As we continue to fight this virus, we need to provide New Yorkers with public spaces to properly socially distance while ensuring our streets remain safe,” said Deputy Mayor Laura Anglin. “I applaud and thank our agencies, the City Council, and countless partners across New York City for collaborating on a quick and actionable open streets plan. We look forward to naming even more streets in the coming weeks.”

On Monday, the Mayor and the Council announced that 40 miles of streets citywide would be opened during May to allow greater social distancing, with a plan to expand to 100 total miles to be identified in the weeks ahead.  

Beginning Monday, May 4, the following streets within parks will be open:

Park	Boro	Street	From	To	Mileage
Fort Tryon Park	MN	Margaret Corbin Drive	Fort Washington Ave	Cabrini Blvd	0.88
Forest Park	QN	Freedom Drive	Park Lane S	Myrtle Ave	1.10
		East Main Drive	Metropolitan Ave	Overlook Parking Lot
		West Main Drive	Band Shell Lot	Golf Course Lot
Silver Lake Park	SI	Silver Lake Park Rd	Forest Ave	Victory Blvd	0.72
Callahan-Kelly	BK	Sackman Pl	Truxton St	Fulton St	0.05
Flushing Meadows Corona Park	QN	Meadow Lake Drive	Model Airplane Field	Meadow Lk Bridge Parking Lot	1.50
Grant Park	BX	Grant Ave	170th St	169th St	0.20
Total mileage					4.45

The following streets adjacent to parks will also be open.

Park   Boro   Street   From  To    Mileage

Williamsbridge Oval  BX   Reservoir Oval E/W  Bainbridge Ave   Bainbridge Ave   0.60

Court Square              QN   Court Sq W                Jackson Ave        Dead End            0.10

Carl Schurz Park       MN   East End Ave             E 83rd St             E 89th St             0.31

Lt. William Tighe

Triangle                     MN   Dyckman St              Broadway            Seaman                0.05

Prospect Park            BK   Prospect Park West    3rd Street            Garfield Place      0.15

Prospect Park            BK    Parkside Ave             Park Circle          Ocean Ave           0.56

Stapleton

Waterfront Park       SI      Front Street               Canal St               Edgewater St        0.51

Highbridge Park    MN   Laurel Hill Terrace    Amsterdam Ave    Amsterdam Ave   0.41

Total mileage                                    2.69

Pedestrians and cyclists can use the roadbed of each open street. No through traffic will be permitted, with remaining vehicle traffic limited to local deliveries, pick-ups/drop-offs, necessary city service vehicles, and emergency vehicles only. These drivers are alerted to be hyper-vigilant and to drive at 5 MPH along these routes.

“We are excited to announce this first group of Open Streets for pedestrians and cyclists, many of which are in and around our parks, which have already proven to be such a precious resource during this crisis,” said DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. “But today’s streets are only the first step. We have many more miles in our sights. We urge Community Boards, BIDs and neighborhood organizations to recommend other streets we can open – particularly in areas that have been hard hit by COVID-19.”

“The additional open space that this plan provides by way of our parks, their perimeters and so much more, goes a long way toward encouraging New Yorkers to socially distance and ensuring our city’s safety and health,” said NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, FAICP. “I am inspired by the way that our sister agencies have come together to reimagine the use of the public realm.”

Ocasio-Cortez to Raise $1M to Support COVID-19 Relief Efforts in NY-14

On Friday, at a press conference inside her Bronx campaign office, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez outlined her campaign’s efforts to mobilize a grassroots army in support of her district during COVID-19. With more than 19,200 positive cases, New York’s 14th Congressional District has more COVID-19  cases than all of Manhattan - despite having nearly a million fewer residents. 

Specifically, the Congresswoman discussed her campaign’s food relief program. Through a partnership with four local food banks, and the support of grassroots donors and volunteers, the campaign has delivered over 500 meals to residents, and has committed to delivering 2,000 meals by mid-June. Those who want to volunteer with relief efforts can sign up here. 

Additionally, Ocasio-Cortez discussed her campaign’s efforts to do ‘check-in’ calls for NY-14 constituents. The campaign’s field team and volunteers have made over 100,000 calls to check on constituents’ well-being and connect them with local resources. The campaign is committed to making 500,000 calls by mid-June.  Those who want to volunteer with relief efforts can sign up here. 

Finally, the Congresswoman announced a new fundraising drive for community groups and advocacy organizations serving constituents on the frontline. To date, the campaign has raised nearly $350,000 for fifteen of these groups exclusively through small-dollar, grassroots donors. These groups are providing PPE to frontline workers as well as financial support to undocumented families, service workers, the food insecure, and Amazon warehouse workers. The Congresswoman is setting a new goal to raise a total of $1 million for direct relief by mid-June.  Those who want to donate to the relief efforts can do so here.  

"Since mid-March, the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund has freed 45 vulnerable immigrants from dangerous, virus-ridden detention centers and reunited them with their families,” said Lee Wang, Director of BCBF's New York Immigrant Freedom Fund program - one of the recipients of the fundraising. “We're so grateful for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's support and for the generosity of the more than thousands of people who answered her call with contributions.” 

“Day Laborers and Jornaleras are on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19. They are delivering food, cleaning essential facilities and continue to work in construction sites to keep our city running. They remain in these dangerous jobs because they don't have the financial support from the government to quit and stay home.  At the same time, other day laborers and jornaleras have been out of work for weeks with no source of income. Though the Jornalera Covid-19 Relief Fund, 300 of these families will be receiving financial support to pay rent payments, groceries and other essentials during these uncertain times,” said Ligia Guallpa, Executive Director of Worker's Justice Project (WJP) - another recipient of the campaign’s fundraising efforts. 

“The NahYah Food Pantry has had to double our capacity and we are now serving over 900 families each week.  Small pantries such as ours, are often forgotten among the greater food banks.  Fundraising is especially difficult due to already limited resources.  We are so grateful to the Congresswoman and her supporters for their help,” said  Rev. Yolanda Lewi, Executive Director, Christ Jesus Baptist Church, Inc.

"Essential workers are at risk every day, with low wages and without necessary protective gear, many of them excluded from paid sick leave. Millions of other families who are out of work are now unable to pay their rent. Thanks to the Congresswoman and the funds she raised, we will support more than 40 workers in the laundromat, restaurant and warehouse industries who are facing these challenges," said Rosanna Rodríguez, Co-Executive Director Laundry Workers Center.

“Our Food Pantry has been helping 150-200 families a week for many years.  In the first week of April, we saw a 35% increase in our clients and demand increased even more the following week. We are now helping nearly 700 households a week. If not for these donations, we would have been unable to meet that need,” said David Edelstein, Executive Director of the Jewish Community Council of Pelham Parkway.

“Ten million restaurant and other tipped workers have lost their jobs nationwide, and a majority are ineligible for unemployment insurance. Many are reporting that they are being denied benefits because they earned the subminimum wage for tipped workers - still $2.13 an hour at the federal level - and their paltry wages plus tips were not enough to meet the minimum threshold to qualify. Their situation is dire - and that's why we cannot thank Congressmember Ocasio-Cortez and her team enough for encouraging people to donate our Service Workers' Emergency Relief Fund! We are getting funds out as quickly as possible to the over 160,000 workers who have applied to us for relief - and also organizing for what we always needed in the service sector: One Fair Wage - a full, livable minimum wage with tips on top,” said Saru Jayaraman with One Fair Wage. 

“Undocumented New Yorkers are disproportionately at the front lines of this crisis, delivering food, processing packages in dangerous warehouses, washing the laundry at hospitals, and more—often without OSHA protections," said Javier H. Valdés, Co-Executive Director of Make the Road New York. "They’re also more likely to have lost their jobs, and we’re hearing daily from members struggling to get by right now as this deadly virus ravages immigrant communities. It’s outrageous that the CARES Act excludes them, and we are proud to work with Representative Ocasio-Cortez and allies to demand that Congress include all people, regardless of immigration status, in cash assistance and unemployment insurance in the next recovery package. In the meantime, we also know that our people need resources now and we have been working extremely hard to provide immediate assistance to thousands of those who are hurting the most. We're proud to have worked with the Congresswoman’s campaign to distribute hundreds of thousands of dollars in direct support to community members in need."

“Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez  has demonstrated her solidarity with nail salon workers again and again,” says Glenda Sefla, a former nail tech in NY-14 and current organizer with the NY Nail Salon Workers Association. “She was there when we called for the elimination of the subminimum wage for tipped workers, and she has shown up during the COVID-19 crisis by promoting our fund and mobilizing her network to bring in thousands of small donations. We are grateful for her leadership not only with our fund but also in calling for the government to do more for immigrant workers. The Resilience Fund has been an important lifeline for workers, but it should not be solely up to the kindness and generosity of individuals to help workers get through this crisis. This crisis has exposed systemic injustices in our economy and society, and nail salon workers will continue to organize and fight for health, dignity and justice at work and beyond. We need the government to show up for workers.”

Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio Announce MTA to Disinfect New York City Transit System Daily

  Governor Cuomo: We have that now with the New York City subway system. Daily News did a front page story, which crystallized it, but it had been happening for weeks. And no one anticipated it, but you have a virus outbreak and conditions on the New York City subway system, for a variety of reasons, have rapidly deteriorated. When you think about what happened you can put it together in the retrospective. The COVID outbreak happens. New York City's a place of density, subways, buses are a place of density. MTA employees who run that system, care for that system, get sick, call in sick as they should. They don't want to infect other people. The number of MTA employees comes down. Number of NYPD, New York Police Department, they get sick, their numbers come down. You now have fewer MTA workers, you have fewer NYPD workers on the trains and in the stations. We have now a greater need than ever to disinfect the subways, the buses, and the stations. Why? Because you're in the middle of a pandemic, this is a place of density and you have thousands and thousands of people going through these subway stations, these turnstiles and these buses, trains and ADA vehicles. Because MTA workers are sick, NYPD officers are sick you have fewer people to monitor and maintain the system. This all happens in the midst of a public health emergency. 

At the same time, you have more homeless people who now are on fewer trains and you have fewer people to outreach to the homeless people. Now you put all of this together, and then at the same time we need our essential workers to go to work. I said the other day, I have two great nightmares from day one: Nightmare one, you did everything you did, closed down, et cetera and you didn't stop the rate of increase of the virus. That would have been a nightmare. Can you imagine if we did all of this and we still saw that virus going up? That would have been a real problem. Second nightmare, the essential workers say I'm not going to work. I'm not going. The transit operators, the police, the food delivery people say it's too dangerous. I'm not going. I'm staying home too.  

You don't have food, you don't have power, you don't have transportation, you don't have electric, now you see society in a really difficult situation. We need those essential workers to go to work. I am pushing every day to get our essential workers to go to work even though they see a lot of their colleagues getting ill. You need those nurses, you need those doctors in very difficult circumstances. That's why I say, they are the heroes of today. All the essential workers. How do our essential workers get to work? They need the public transit system. It's true in New York City, it's true all across the state. They need the public buses, they need the trains, they need the subways to get to work. We need them, they need the buses and they need the subways. 

We are as a society, me as a spokesperson for the state, I'm saying to them every day, I need you to do this. I know it's hard, but I need you to do it. Okay, we need them to do it but what is our obligation. Our obligation is to make sure we're doing everything we can do to keep them safe. That's my personal obligation and it's the collective obligation. You want them to be there to deliver the food, what's your obligation is to do everything you're doing to make sure that they are safe while they're doing it. The MTA understood where we were with this global pandemic. They stepped up operations are were cleaning trains and buses every 72 hours, which is an amazing undertaking when you think about it. To clean all those buses and trains every 72 hours. We know the virus can live for hours or even days on a surface which means if somebody positive walks on to a train this morning, that virus can be there tomorrow and the next day. That then changes the whole focus of the problem.  

To say disinfect every train every 24 hours is just a task that nobody has every imagined before. I would wager in the history of public transportation in this nation you never had a challenge of disinfecting every train, every 24 hours. Disinfect, how do you even disinfect a train? We clean trains but how do you disinfect? This is a whole new process, these are new chemicals. This is new equipment for workers. It's new methods. Just think about it, you have to disinfect every place that a hand could touch on a subway car. Every rail, every pole, every door, wherever a hand could touch or coughing, sneezing. Wherever droplets could land. So you have to disinfect that entire interior of the car and then you have to disinfect the stations, the handrails, everything that people could be touching. It is a massive undertaking that we've never done before. 

That is the right thing to do. That is, as we said we've never done tracing before, we've done disinfecting train cars before, but so what? That's what we have to do. So figure out how to do what you have to do. This is what we have to do. I challenged the MTA to come up with a plan, they came up with a plan. They can disinfect all trains and buses every night. It can best be done by stopping train service from 1 am to 5 am every night during the pandemic so they can actually perform this service. 

Now, remember the context that we're in in this pandemic. Ridership is down 92 percent. One to 5 are the slow hours, 1 am to 5 am. It's the lowest ridership. Estimate is about 10,000 people ride the system overall during that period of time. So the MTA will launch what they call the essential connector program, they'll have buses, dollar vans and if necessary, will provide for-hire vehicles to transport a person. The Uber, the Lyft, the vehicles - at no cost to the essential worker during those hours to provide transport. So, people who need transportation during 1am and 5am can have it. Will have it. Even to the extent of a for-hire vehicle paid for by the MTA. Remember, 1am to 5am - we don't have bars open, we don't have restaurants open, so you don't have a lot of traffic that you would normally have. You do have essential workers who are using our trains and subways. They will have transportation during that period of time. 

I've consulted with the elected officials on the MTA's recommendation and we all agree to accept the plan on the Essential Connector Program. The MTA is undertaking something that people would've said was virtually impossible. Trains and buses will be disinfected daily. Service will continue. The MTA will also disinfect the fleet on the Metro North and the Long Island Railroad, which is what goes out to Long Island, goes to the Northern suburbs. They can do that without any disruption in service because of the volume of ridership, et cetera.

So, just think about it. The entire public transportation system in downstate New York will be disinfected every 24 hours. This is a joint MTA, state, city partnership. We're doing a lot of things here that we've never done before. I am never one to shy away from a challenge. I don't believe government has that option. I'm never one to say, "well, that's just too much, too hard, too ambitious." We can do it. I believe we can do it. I believe we can do anything. I believe we can build bridges, I believe we can build airports, I believe we can defeat global pandemics. But this is as ambitious as anything that we've ever undertaken. It's going to require a lot of extraordinary service and effort from multiple agencies all working together.

The MTA has stepped up by recommending this plan. The state will do whatever it has to do. A big part of this falls to the city. I've spoken to Mayor de Blasio. It's going to require a lot of assistance from the NYPD, it's going to require a lot of assistance from different city agencies. Again, close down every station, close down the trains. We've never been here before. I guarantee another ten things come up when we go to do this that are also anticipated consequences.

I think we have the mayor who is on the telephone or some electronic means. There he is, Mayor Bill de Blasio. Welcome to Albany.

Mayor de Blasio: Thanks, Governor, it's a pleasure to be with you. Governor, that point you made about all of us together doing something different, doing something necessary, and being willing together to go someplace we've never been before. You and I have talked about this kind of idea a lot over the years. I think when we first met each other, the word "disruption" was considered a bad thing. In recent years, it's taken on a very positive connotation. That when we disrupt something that isn't work or has been thought about in a very narrow way and we go someplace new and better, that's a positive. I think what we're talking about today is exactly that. I commend you and everyone at the MTA.

I want to talk about why I think this plan is so important - in terms of our essential workers, our first responders, our healthcare heroes - why I think it's so important in terms of also addressing homelessness in a new and powerful way.

But I first want to express my appreciation, along with you, really appreciate - back on one of your previous topics - the contact tracing. Really appreciate that my predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, is stepping up such a big way for New York City and New York State. Contact tracing, the test and trace approach, is going to change everything. You and I are united in that, as well. The aggressive approach. In fact, Governor, New York City is hiring 1,000 contact tracers with healthcare background to super charge this effort. I think we are going to be able to show this country a model that's going to be extraordinarily effective in beating back this disease. I look forward to that partnership as well.

Governor, you know for decades in this city somehow homeless encampments were actually tolerated. People thought oh it's the kind of thing, what can we do about that? I'm proud to say the last few years Homeless Services, NYPD, nonprofit organizations, we got together and said we're not allowing that anymore. We shut them down and we found it actually helped us to get the homeless to the help they need. This is another example of that, so I want to let you know that as we all talked about this idea and I commend you, your team in Albany, and obviously team at the MTA, Pat Foye, Sarah Feinberg. It's been a very productive conversation these last few days. And what I think we've come to together, is yeah we're going to do something unprecedented. We'll do something because we're in an emergency but we're also going to do something that's going to protect people and offer a new way to get people help who never got enough. So Governor, thank you. I think this is a partnership you're right it's not going to be easy. No one said it was going to be. But you have my full commitment, the commitment of the City commission, the NYPD and all of our agencies. We're going to make this work together and we're going to be able to look back and say we did something that actually changed people's lives for the better and as long as it takes we're going to stand with you and get this done. 

Governor Cuomo: Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mayor de Blasio. Mayor made a lot of good points. Nobody ever said it was going to be easy. But nobody ever said it was going to be this hard either and I think the Mayor's point is very well taken. Look, we're doing things all across the board here that had never been done before and I think there are lessons to learn and lessons we'll take with us.

Telemedicine I think is a lesson we'll take with us, tele-education, remote learning, it's a lesson we'll take with us, a new public health system is a lesson that we'll take with us and I think we're going to improve and learn from this experience with the New York City transit system because the truth is it wasn't working well or as well as it should before. We did have a problem with the homeless and Mayor de Blasio is right. I've worked on it all my life. Outreaching to homeless people is very, very hard and getting them to come in to a place that actually provide services is very, very hard. So this can actually energize the connections with outreach workers and the homeless population. And we've never had to disinfect trains like this or buses like this and they will be cleaner than ever before.