Attorney General James Announces Arraignment of NYPD Officer on Murder Charge

Errick Allen was off-duty when he allegedly shot Christopher Curro

  New York Attorney General Letitia James today announced the arrest and arraignment of Errick Allen, 27, of North Massapequa, on the charge of murder in the second degree in connection with the shooting death of Christopher Curro, 25, of West Babylon. The Attorney General’s Office serves as a special prosecutor in matters relating to the death of unarmed civilians caused by law enforcement officers, pursuant to New York Executive Order 147. Errick Allen is an officer with the New York City Police Department (NYPD).

Allen was arraigned today before Judge Anthony Paradiso of the Nassau County District Court. The Attorney General’s Office requested that the defendant be remanded into custody, and the judge granted that application. Allen is due back in court on May 26, 2020. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

“We trust our police officers to protect the safety of New Yorkers, but instead, this individual allegedly betrayed that duty and used his service weapon to end another man’s life,” said Attorney General James. “My office is committed to ensuring justice is served and that no individual is above the law.”

Allen and Curro were longtime, childhood acquaintances. On Tuesday, May 12, 2020, shortly after 8:00 pm, during an encounter on a residential street in Farmingdale, Allen is alleged to have shot Curro five times, including twice in the head, at close range with his NYPD service weapon, causing Curro’s death. Allen initially fled the scene, but returned some time later in the evening. Allen was off-duty at the time of the shooting.

The charges are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless found guilty.

MAYOR DE BLASIO on COVID-19 - May 21, 2020

  Mayor Bill de Blasio: A few days ago, a letter was passed along through one of our food delivery providers. These are these folks out every day making sure New Yorkers who are hungry have food in the middle of this crisis, helping people, many cases who never thought they'd ever have to ask for food. And want to start by appreciating, thanking all the folks out there every single day who are bringing food to people in need. What a beautiful act of kindness, and compassion in the midst of this challenge. So, a letter gets passed along to one of them from a woman named Sylvia in Sheepshead Bay. I should let you know that Sylvia is 97 years old chronologically. She's a great grandmother of 13, and she receives senior kosher meals through our food program. And in the letter she sent, there is a poem of gratitude. I want to share it with you for it's simple beauty. It says, “Had to write you about your food. For a 97-year-young was in the mood to thank you for all your days preparing food in different ways. Thank you. Thank you. I praise you all. Be gone virus, do not stall”. So wonderful that Sylvia was moved to thank all the great people who put together those meals, and delivered them, and to think about what they do and how much it matters to every-day New Yorkers. I love her poetic ability, and the way she puts it all together so nicely, but it's important to think about a second meaning I see in Sylvia's poem, and it's the fact of Sylvia's life – she's 97. She's writing a poem full of gratitude in the midst of this crisis. If she's 97, do the math, she was born just a few years after the pandemic of 1918. So, Sylvia is someone who grew up in the aftermath of a crisis. The only crisis, in fact, we can compare to what we're going through now. And she grew up and she grew strong, and with a strong and good heart, and she's still with us here today. I think there's an incredible affirmation of life in her very existence, but even more so in her willingness to thank others for all they are doing.

So, think about the people who count on these meals, because that's what we have to do every single day when we think about why we are doing this work. Don't think of just numbers, and don't think about some abstract idea of helping our fellow human beings, think of the people in need. Think of a 97-year-old who made it this far, but needs that food to keep going, and how much we have to honor and love and appreciate our elders as I talked about yesterday. Think about the working people, hardworking people, middle class people, people who were doing everything right and suddenly their job wasn't there anymore, and they don't have that paycheck, and they don't have enough money to feed their family. Think about parents. Number-one thought in the morning, last thought at night is how they protect their kids. Think about the pain they feel when they don't know if there's going to be a meal for their child. That's why we do the work we do to help each and every one of them, and everyone liked them to make sure they never have to wonder where their next meal is coming from.

So, what we set out to do was feed everyone. Enormous mission, feed them quality food, feed them safely, make sure everyone was safe in the process, the folks who prepare the food, the folks who deliver the food, the folks who are receiving the food. And it's a huge endeavor, and every day we're trying to make it better, but what has happened in just the last few weeks, this was all put together in a matter of weeks is quite remarkable and something New Yorkers should be proud of as another example of the spirit, the energy, the entrepreneurship, the creativity that exists in this amazing place. I'm going to turn in a moment to our food czar, Kathryn Garcia, to give you a quick report on where we stand, but let me give you this important fact. Since the middle of March when this crisis went into higher gear, we have distributed, the city of New York has distributed 32 million meals to New Yorkers who needed food, and this effort is growing every day. By next week, over a million meals will be delivered per day. Delivered to people directly per day. Over half a million grab and go meals will be handed out per day at our Department of Education food sites. 500 sites across the city.

I want to thank our colleagues in the media. We get together every day or six days a week, I should say. And a lot of times our colleagues in the media pointed out specific problems that have helped us make the food program better, address a problem, make the program better, realize something that needs to be fixed. That's one of the great virtues of the free press, is the ability to see things and hold government accountable. So, I want to thank four members of the media who have really focused on this issue – Juliet Papa of 1010 WINS; Sydney Kashiwagi of the Staten Island Advance; Marcia Kramer, CBS New York; and Julia Marsh of the New York Post. They've all raised really helpful, important concerns and we followed through on each of them, and we will keep following through on each concern is raised, because we need to get this right. So, now I'm going to turn to our food czar with great thanks for her effort and the team she's put together. And Commissioner Garcia has answered the call many times when the city needed something special and something important done, and I can't think of anything more important than making sure New Yorkers have food every day. Obviously, the folks at Department of Education, all those folks working in the kitchens and that those food sites, 500 sites around the city. Our colleagues Department for the Aging who long ago were providing meals to seniors things like meals on wheels and have been building and building since then, reusing senior centers and new ways to make sure that they can help get food out to seniors who need it. Now, anyone who needs a meal, a reminder, if you need to find out where you can get a meal at the community-based sites you can go to nyc.gov/getfood. If you needed a delivery, you can call 3-1-1. But the bottom line is we will not let any New Yorker go hungry. So, if you need food, go online or pick up that phone and we will get it to you.

Obviously, with warmer weather, there's a lot of things that are going to start to change people's lives and behavior and a lot of that is good. That means we're moving the right direction, but it also means that a lot of the patterns of life will start to restore and we have to recognize the implications of that. So, in this crisis, one of the things that was so obvious on the issue of safety, clearly during the heart of this COVID crisis, we saw an extraordinary drop in crime and no one ever wanted the coronavirus here, but at least something happened with crime that was in the right direction. We saw less crime, but we know as things get even begin to get back to normal and as the weather gets warmer, we have to guard against any increase in crime. So, we are trying to make sure that everything we do, that we're focused on safety again today and what's going to happen in the weeks and months ahead. For that reason, we are going to use the strategy we have used the last summers effectively to keep crime down and that's called Summer All Out. It's an NYPD operation where officers who work in office settings in different specialized areas of the department go out to neighborhoods and work at the grassroots level. It's been very successful, very effective, we're going to do it again now. Why? Because over the years we learned that business as usual wasn't working, there were too many years going back decades where there was an assumption in this town that the summer was going to get more violent.

So, Summer All Out this year will involve about 300 officers, be 300 officers across 10 commands and you can see them on your screen. These are communities that have been hardest hit by gun violence, we want to make sure gun violence does not reassert as this crisis starts to wane, let us pray. And the officers are very visible presence in the community, they get to know the community. Again, those neighborhood policing principles make all the difference in the world because they help us do a lot more and we're going to do that again this summer with summer all out.

We also are learning new strategies and when it comes to homelessness, we have seen something extraordinary happen because of the innovation of shutting the subways for a few hours late at night to get them really clean, really safe for our central workers, but also to disrupt the historic pattern of homeless folks just staying on the subways and not connecting with services and shelter and we have been working together with the state, with the MTA, NYPD homeless services, everyone working together, lots of outreach workers who spend their lives helping homeless folks and helping them in off the streets. We have two full weeks now of results and I want to go over them. The first week, 201 unique individuals, meaning we cross check to make sure that it wasn't just the same people each day, but how many total people were affected by the outreach effort. 201 accepted placement of shelter for some of time and every time someone who's permanently street homeless goes into shelter even for a night, it's a step in the right direction. It's a beginning of convincing them to come in and accept a better reality that we can give them to keep them healthy and keep them safe. 102 of those individuals were still in shelter by the end of that first week, meaning that we were maximizing our chance to keep them in shelter and help them on the pathway to a new and better life. The second week, 181 unique individuals accepted placement and shelter for some period of time. 113 we're still in shelter by the end of week two. So these numbers, they may seem to some like a small number in the context of New York City, but when you remember that the total number of people living on the streets and subways is estimated by the federal government at about 3,500 to 4,000 people on any given day in New York City. When you see a hundred people in a week come in to shelter and stay there, that's actually a major step towards reducing permanent homelessness once and for all and ending it once and for all. So, we'll put these numbers together and over the past two weeks, over 1,400 unique individuals have accepted help, 378 accepted placement and shelter 211 remain in shelter, 301 accepted hospital care. Thank you to all our partners, thank you to our outreach workers. This is a huge step in the right direction.

Last night, I met with a group of folks who are going to have a huge impact on the future of the city, our advisory council on construction, real estate and infrastructure. So many people who will be central to the restart of our economy and whose work is crucial to the future of the city beyond the coronavirus, because this is a city more than any in the entire country that has so much work to do on infrastructure, so much work to do on building for our future. They're going to apply those relationships to help us get what we need in New York City, which is that stimulus bill from the federal government. Everyone on the call understood, if we get the kind of stimulus that New York City deserves, the kind of stimulus the House of Representatives passed last week - we can actually get back on our feet. We can actually start building stronger; we can put a lot of people to work. By the way, we're talking about a stimulus just to make us whole again to make up for the vast lost revenue we've experienced, but think about the word stimulus. It's actually not just supposed to get you back to square one. It's supposed to help you move forward; it’s supposed to stimulate greater levels of activity. That's what these folks were talking about; all they're ready to build that will benefit New York City and they're going to help us get the stimulus done so we can do that.

We have to start to make adjustments accordingly. One example, I'm going to give you refers to a lifeline for this city; for folks who depend on the Staten Island Ferry it couldn't be more important in their lives. It's the way they get to their livelihoods; it's the way they connect with so many other important things in their life. Staten Islanders depend on the Staten Island Ferry in a very, very powerful way. Now, in the beginning of this crisis, ridership of course went down radically – a 90 percent drop in ridership on the ferry. So, we reduced service accordingly and the most we saw in a typical rush hour trip was 400-500 passengers, but now we actually see ridership starting to go up. We're seeing up to 600 passengers already and think it's going to keep rising, so we need to get ahead of that. And some good news this week as well on top of that for the Staten Island ferry, we have just heard from the United States Department of Transportation that we're getting a $21 million grant for the ferry and that is going to help us as we start to ramp back up service to pay for a lot of the costs associated with restarting, growing the service, and the additional cleaning we want to do to make sure that all Staten Islanders know that ferry is clean and healthy at all times.

I constantly come back to appreciating the folks who have helped us through this crisis. But you had a lot of help and you particularly had a lot of help from our friends at the Parks Department who led the way in terms of educating people, motivating people, showing people what social distancing looked like and how to do it, giving out face coverings. The Parks Department, this has been one of their finest hours. Parks workers not only kept the parks going, not only gave out the face coverings and helped us to make sure we were socially distancing; they help put together field hospitals, they helped to run those food distribution sites. As I mentioned, they gave out untold numbers of face coverings all over parks and beyond. So we want to thank them. So today is, “Go Green for Parkies Day,” and as you see on your screen, the Empire State Building will go green and here's an example, everyone going green. I want to show you the stylish, they have very good stylish equipment, clothing, whatever you want to say, caps - they have it all the Parks Department. But we all need to take a moment to appreciate our colleagues at the Parks Department. So when you're out there, say thank you to them, say thank you to all the different kinds of parks workers you meet – the folks in forestry, maintenance, operation, parks enforcement, patrol officers, the parks ambassadors who are out there with the education and the face coverings, the urban park rangers, all the park staff. They've really gone above and beyond. 

So, our parks workers have stepped up and they've been amazing and so many New Yorkers have stepped up and so many New Yorkers have said, I've heard it and I know all of you have heard it, they want to do more; they want to find a way to contribute, they want to help. And I believe them because people have done amazing things. So here is another important way to help - donate blood. We need New Yorkers who can give blood to give blood, it’s a very important moment in history because we're dealing with this crisis. It's disrupted all the normal blood donation drives that happen each year. We want people who can to do it. On the screen you see how you do that; you go to NYBC.org and make an appointment, or you call (800) 933-2566 the New York Blood Center – make an appointment. I'm going to give blood today along with Chirlane. We know it's important, so we're going to do it; I'm asking you to do that as well. And literally you could help save the life of a fellow New Yorker by giving blood at this crucial moment.

Okay, let's talk about our daily indicators. It's a pretty good day. Again, I want us to get to great days, but it's definitely a good day because two indicators down and one up by just a little. So, indicator one, daily number of people admitted to hospitals for suspected COVID-19 – that is down from 63 to 60. And number two, daily number of people in ICUs across Health + Hospitals for suspected COVID-19 – that is down from 483 to 477. The only one that's up, again only up by one point, is the percent of people tested positive for COVID-19 – up from 8 percent to 9 percent. Here's something amazing; for more than a week we have been around or even below the annual average for folks admitted to hospitals for this broad kind of disease. On that third indicator, the percent of people testing positive citywide, again, you see a little fluctuation; you saw a little bit of fluctuation today. We've had several days in single digits, which we obviously didn't see before, but here's another big picture reality – the last 10 days have all been below 15 percent. So even though we see some fluctuation on the big picture, something very important has happened. We've gotten down below 15 percent for 10 days and stayed there consistently. So, again, this is remarkable progress. I'm going to go into more and more detail starting tomorrow and the days ahead about how we are taking this information and now using it to prepare for the steps we'll take in June and what we're looking for as we make our final decisions on restart and then how to sustain a safe restart. And again, we're talking about small smart steps. It will take a series of steps over time to get back to anything like normal. But something very good is happening because of your hard work and everyone in this town should feel good about that.

MAYOR DE BLASIO ANNOUNCES EMERGENCY RELIEF PROGRAM FOR SURVIVORS OF DOMESTIC AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

In partnership with Sanctuary for Families, program will provide immediate financial assistance to survivors experiencing safety, economic, and housing challenges

   Mayor de Blasio today announced a new emergency financial relief program for survivors of domestic and gender-based violence to provide funding for immediate safety, economic, and housing needs currently exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In partnership with Sanctuary for Families, the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence (ENDGBV) will leverage its network of service providers to distribute funds to directly support survivors in need across the city. Funding for this program is provided by the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City’s COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund. 

"Home should be a safe place for everyone in our city and we will not accept any other reality, now or after this crisis. We want any New Yorker experiencing violence at home to know that help is always available. New York City is here for survivors and we will continue to find new ways to ensure they are safe and supported,” said Mayor de Blasio.

“For the first time, New York City is putting critical dollars directly in the hands of survivors to help them find safety and stability during this unprecedented crisis,” said First Lady Chirlane McCray. “Domestic violence leads to devastating immediate and long-term effects on families, children and survivors for generations that follow. This innovative approach can help create positive outcomes for survivors and break patterns of abuse and trauma.”

Aligned with the City’s efforts to help those most vulnerable during the COVID-19 crisis, this first-of-its-kind initiative will respond to the acute and unique needs of survivors. The pilot program will deliver “micro-grants” ranging in value based on need and follows evidence-based funding models that have emerged as powerful economic empowerment tools, particularly helpful in mitigating risk factors for survivors of domestic and gender-based violence. The micro-grant model will enable service providers to file for funds on behalf of survivors directly with Sanctuary for Families, speeding access to funds. The program will utilize best practices from other successful models building upon existing City investments for survivors by opening a new stream of funds.

ENDGBV and its partners continue to inform the public about its services and COVID-19 resources through its agency website, its “NYC HOPE” resources directory, and social media to ensure survivors know that help is available. The Office also created Resources for Survivors During COVID-19 – a page dedicated to COVID-19 resources and information. Helpful information on resources is sent out regularly through the Notify NYC system and the City’s LinkNYC system. Multi-lingual advertisements for NYC HOPE appear on Google Search, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and will also be featured in convenience stores, check cashing locations, laundromats, pharmacies and grocery stores. 

Last week, the City launched an ENDGBV COVID-19 response work group to prevent acts of domestic gender-based violence and best support survivors during the pandemic. The work group includes a diverse group of twenty providers representing multi-disciplinary services for survivors across the City including shelter, legal services, and counseling and mental health services. Providers from both small and large community-based organizations have representation in the work group, with an emphasis on those serving various communities citywide.

      The Mayor’s Fund is continuing to pursue additional funds to enhance this crucial resource through grassroots fundraising and partnerships with the philanthropic and business communities. Anyone can contribute to the program through the COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund.

“The COVID crisis compounds the challenges faced by survivors of domestic and gender-based violence,” said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Dr. Raul Perea-Henze. “The de Blasio administration is committed to empowering all survivors with the tools to meet their immediate needs for safety, stability and economic security. This innovative pilot program achieves just that.”

“COVID-19 puts into sharp focus the vulnerabilities that many people in our city face every day, especially gender-based violence survivors; and it highlights the barriers and challenges that we know keep people from seeking help and finding safety,” said ENDGBV Commissioner Cecile Noel. “This funding will provide crucial support for survivors. The City is here for survivors during this crisis and beyond, and will continue to work to identify best practices and innovative approaches to enhance its services.”

“Every New York deserves to feel safe in their home and community, but too often that isn’t the case for survivors of domestic and gender-based violence,” said Toya Williford, Executive Director of the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City. “During these trying times, it is more crucial than ever to get resources into the hands of those who need them most. The Mayor’s Fund is grateful that, through our trusted network of partners, we’re able to implement this innovative model to help survivors achieve stability.”

“The COVID-19 health crisis has exposed an already vulnerable population to further peril as stay-at-home orders compound economic hardship for survivors of gender based violence,” said Hon. Judy Harris Kluger, Executive Director of Sanctuary for Families. “Sanctuary for Families is proud to be working hand-in-hand with ENDGBV and the Mayor’s Fund to ensure that survivors have access to the resources they need to maintain their safety as well as economic and housing stability. We applaud the City’s efforts to mitigate risk factors for survivors of domestic violence through the distribution of micro grants, which will be a powerful tool in helping survivors across New York City weather this crisis.”

MAYOR DE BLASIO PROVIDES UPDATES ON CITY’S EFFORTS TO ENSURE NO NEW YORKER GOES HUNGRY

By next week, the Emergency Food Program will be delivering over 1 million meals per day; The City has served over 32 million meals across all programs since the COVID-19 crisis began

  Mayor de Blasio today updated New Yorkers on the City’s emergency food efforts during the COVID-19 crisis. By next week, the Emergency Food Delivery program will be delivering over 1 million meals per day. This is in addition to the City’s school grab-and-go program, which serves over 500,000 meals per day at over 500 schools across the City. The City’s efforts have now passed 32 million total meals served across all City programs since COVID-19 crisis began.

"We are laser focused on ensuring no New Yorker goes hungry,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “We’ve built a massive operation in just a few weeks and have already provided over 32 million meals since this crisis began, and this is just the beginning. If any New Yorker needs food, we are here for you.”

"This is an enormous operation set up to meet a need the scale of which is hard to imagine, and I'm tremendously proud of our team across City agencies. We have very high standards here - this is emergency food, but it must be healthy, nutritious food. We're working with farmers, caterers, restaurants, and non-profits to do what we can to get it right every time," said Kathryn Garcia, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Sanitation and the City’s COVID-19 Food Czar.

The City has monitored the food delivery system closely and continues to learn quickly and make adjustments as needed. The City is currently working with approximately 30 food providers, and is actively hiring and expanding non-profit and for-profit providers to increase capacity, variety and cultural-competence. While this is emergency food to ensure no New Yorker goes hungry, the City also ensures meals meet nutrition requirements. For the senior meals program, for example, meals have sodium limits and required servings of protein, fruits and vegetables, and whole grains. Due to scale, some vendors are providing shelf-stable boxes, while others are providing fresh food or frozen food as well. If food quality does not meet the program’s standards, the City addresses it directly with the food providers, and has ended contracts with providers who were not living up to their commitment. Read more about the plan to feed New Yorkers in need at nyc.gov/feedingnyc and access food resources at nyc.gov/getfood. New Yorkers who encounter issues can get help at nyc.gov/GetFoodHelp or via 311.

“We continue our commitment to making sure no New Yorker goes hungry during this pandemic. This is an all-hands-on-deck approach, and I am grateful to the multiple City agencies, public and private partners, and CERT volunteers who are all dedicated to providing nutritious food to anyone in need,” said NYC Emergency Management Commissioner Deanne Criswell.

“Feeding New York has been enormously successful and Emergency Food Delivery has been a lifeline for millions of New Yorkers,” said TLC Commissioner and Chair Aloysee Heredia Jarmoszuk, “including our licensed professional drivers, who are performing their duties as essential workers and earning some income in the process.”

 “We are proud to be a part of this effort to provide food security for millions of New Yorkers. We have 95 Parks employees working at our Food Distribution Sites throughout the city who have served over 14 million meals,” said NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver. “Each meal provided reflects our commitment to preserving the health and well-being of the public we serve.”

 “Our food service employees are unsung heroes and Meal Hubs in every neighborhood across this city are providing a vital service for not only our students, but entire communities. We’ll continue to keep our doors open for as long as it is needed, and we’re proud to help New Yorkers combat hunger every day,” said Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza.

“When DFTA began the direct meal delivery program for older adults in March, we knew that many older New Yorkers, who prior to the pandemic had been independent, would find themselves food insecure and that demand for meals would greatly increase,” said Department for the Aging Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez. “The Food Czar’s team has expanded the direct meal delivery program and continues to serve many more older New Yorkers, more than the 44,000 served by DFTA.” 

Bailey, Cohen, and Fernandez Give out Masks, Gloves and Hand Sanitizer

   Wednesday afternoon on a busy East 204th Street State Senator Jamaal Bailey, Councilman Andrew Cohen, and Assemblywoman Nathalia Fernandez joined forces to hand out face masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer to the many people who lined up, and continued to keep coming. The first item for the trio to run out of was the bottles of hand sanitizer, but there were plenty of face masks and gloves for everyone.

Above - The line of people waiting for the free face masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer.

Below - (L-R) State Senator Jamaal Bailey, Assemblywoman Nathalia Fernandez, Morjur Choudhury of Community Board 7, and Councilman Andrew Cohen.

MAYOR DE BLASIO ANNOUNCES FOUR-PART PLAN FOR CITY NURSING HOMESMAYOR DE BLASIO ANNOUNCES FOUR-PART PLAN FOR CITY NURSING HOMES

All 169 nursing homes will have access to on-site COVID-19 tests, personnel support, and outbreak response teams to aid in infection control

  Mayor de Blasio announced a comprehensive four-part plan today to support nursing homes citywide amid the COVID-19 crisis. Beginning next week, the City will offer on-site COVID-19 testing to patients and staff at all 169 nursing homes across the city. The City will also surge personnel to support existing nursing home staff, and deploy Outbreak Control Teams from the Health Department to help control and prevent outbreaks in congregate settings before they occur. To minimize the risk of future outbreaks, the City will also help elder New Yorkers shift to a model of home-based care, allowing them to receive the same quality, supportive services under the care of their families and loved ones.

“These past few months have been painful for families across the city—and nowhere has this fear been more acute than among our city’s most vulnerable residents,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Seniors are especially at risk for COVID-19, which is why we are marshaling every resource to our nursing homes to help them save lives and prevent future outbreaks.”

On-Site testing

Beginning next week, the City will offer on-site COVID-19 testing to all 169 nursing homes citywide. The City will subsidize the cost of tests for residents and work with a lab partner to ensure timely processing. Over the next two weeks, deliveries will be made to every nursing home who request support with the goal of getting as many people tested as possible, and eventually reduced to regular, weekly tests as requested as appropriate to control transmission.  With this added support, nursing homes will be able to test up to 3,000 people per day in addition to any of their existing testing capacity and that provided by New York State. Under guidance from the CDC during an outbreak, nursing home residents should be tested once a week. Staff members are required by New York State to be tested twice per week. Additionally, the City will work with the State, who oversees nursing homes, to implement these measures and ensure to ensure proper outbreak management and infectious control procedures.

More Staff and Support

The City will continue to surge personnel to nursing homes to aid existing staff. With widespread testing of nursing staff homes now in effect, this added support will help nursing homes avoid potential staffing shortages. To meet urgent staffing needs, the City has already placed 240 additional personnel in nursing homes citywide, and will continue to surge personnel to meet the goal of 600 personnel total. By end of next week, every nursing home will have staffing they’ve requested.

Outbreak Response Teams and More Home Based Care

To prevent further outbreaks, the City has created 10 Outbreak Response Teams in partnership with the Department of Health. Teams will be deployed to nursing homes and other congregate settings to rapidly respond and control outbreaks, including proper adherence to infectious disease protocol, use of Personal Protective Equipment, and additional retesting protocol as needed after the outbreak has ended. Each team will be led by an epidemiologist, with mental health and infection control specialists able to assist as needed. The City is also exploring how it can help support home-based care for more senior New Yorkers. By reducing the number of people in congregate settings, the shift would reduce the possibility of future widespread outbreaks and allow seniors to receive supportive services in the comfort and familiarity of their own homes and with more connection to their families.

90-Day PPE Stockpile

To create a 90-day reserve of PPE, the City will gradually add materials to a stockpile reserve consisting of N95s, face shields, goggle, gloves, gowns, face masks, and over 4,000 ventilators. The City will continue to furnish the immediate PPE needs of healthcare facilities, DOC, FDNY, EMS, NYPD, nursing homes, and funeral homes, with the City in possession of enough PPE to last the City through the month of May at its current crisis standard.

Keeping Kids Vaccinated

Citywide pediatric vaccination rates have fallen during the COVID-19 crisis. When compared to the period of March 23 to May 9 this year and last year, there was a 42 percent drop in children 2 years old or younger and a 91 percent drop of children older than the age of two. To ensure children continue to receive vaccinations, the City is offering free vaccinations at over 1,000 New York City facilities through its Vaccines for Children program. Families can call 844-NYC-4NYC to make an appointment at the Center closest to them.

MAYOR DE BLASIO on COVID-19 - May 20, 2020

  Mayor Bill de Blasio: Let's take a moment today to think about people in our lives who mean so much to us because they are our elders. The folks we look up to, the folks who brought us up, the folks who got us this far. Let's take a moment to think about the senior citizens in our lives, our moms and dads, our grandparents, our aunts and uncles – the people who have done so much for us – and to think about what they mean to us. And I had an experience this week – I have an aunt, my Aunt Jean, she lives up in Maine, she's 93 years old. And she reached out to me because she saw one of these morning press conferences, and she was very taken with the use of the word boomerang to describe the fact that we have to fight this disease and make sure it doesn't have a resurgence. So, she reached out to me to tell me she thought that I was saying something important and she liked the way I said it. And we went back and forth about what was going on, what was going on here, what was going on up there. And in the conversation with her, I felt a tremendous sense of reassurance, because over the years she's told me stories from her own life. She's 93 years old, so she went through the Depression. She has always told me stories of what her family went through, our family went through in the Depression, how they overcame it, how they survived that. She's told me stories about my dad when he was in the US Army in World War II – the letters she would get when he was fighting in battles all over the Pacific. The letters that would come that would tell her that he was still alive, and what that felt like.

When I talked to my aunt, I feel just such gratitude for her. I feel such a sense of inspiration that, you know, she's still here, and that she still has this wonderful spirit and love of life. And I think every one of us has people like that in our life. And it's a reminder that we literally wouldn't be here without all of them, but also what they've taught us, what they mean to us. It's a society that in many ways, prizes, youth so much. That's certainly true in media, and entertainment, and advertising. But I think it's a time when maybe we're reassessing a bit, and we're coming to remember what we owe our seniors and to appreciate them more, and to look out for them more, and to defend them more. So, to me, this comes down to the seniors in our lives, what they have given us, what they mean to us, and what we owe to them. What we owe to them in terms of making sure they are healthy, making sure they are safe, always being there for them.

Now, this crisis has clearly been so tough on the oldest New Yorkers, and it has shown us, once again, we have to redouble our efforts to help those who are most vulnerable. And some of the folks who have had the toughest time, our seniors who live in nursing homes. There are 169 nursing homes in New York City, and this whole crisis has made us think about what happens to folks who live in a nursing home any time, but particularly during a crisis. And it's making us think about just the way nursing homes are organized in our society. They're largely for-profit enterprises. And I think a lot of tough questions being asked and it should be asked about where we are now, and where we want to go in the future. But I think about what has been like in these last few months in the nursing homes of our city, what it has felt for seniors. The fear that we all feel I'm sure has been magnified for so many of them. The sense of isolation that all of us are feeling has been magnified for so many seniors. We all have more to do, and I know the State of New York has been working hard to address this issue, and the City has as well, but we want to keep doing more and more.

Today I want to talk about a four-part plan to address the needs of our seniors, particularly our seniors in nursing homes. First, if you had to guess right now what I would tell you is the most important thing in terms of fighting the coronavirus in this case in nursing homes, I imagine if I gave you one guess, you would say testing. Once again, all roads lead to testing. We in the first weeks of this crisis, there was no testing to be had basically, and what we had had to go to save lives in the hospitals, had to go to protect the healthcare workers and first responders who are the people saving our lives. We're now spreading out testing throughout communities. 

So, starting next week we will offer PCR test, the diagnostic tests to every nursing home in New York City. This will be for onsite testing in the nursing homes. As many test kits as the nursing home needs, we will provide, we're working with a lab to do the processing, so this'll be a dedicated effort focused on the nursing homes, all 169 of them, and whatever amount of tests they need, whatever amount of lab capacity they need, we will find it for them. If every nursing home does this consistently, we believe it will take us up to a need of about 3,000 tests a day, and we want them, we want all the nursing homes. Again, we don't control them. There's a few that are in the domain of our public health system, but the vast majority are private nonprofit that we don't control, we don't regulate, but we're offering this to all for free.

Second part, we're going to provide more staff. So, here's what happens. When you start doing more and more testing, you will find more people who test positive, it's understandable. And that will include some of the good people, the valiant people who work in our nursing homes. Anyone who tests positive who works in a nursing home has to stay away for 14 days. You're going to have staffing shortages. We are committed, the city of New York is committed to filling those gaps, to making sure there's enough personnel for every nursing home. So, we've been sending additional personnel already to nursing homes. We asked the nursing homes of this city to tell us what they needed. We put in place almost 250 additional staff in nursing homes citywide, nurses, nurses aides, other staff. We will continue to fulfill the requests from every nursing home. By the end of next week, every outstanding staffing requests from every nursing home in New York City will be fulfilled by the city of New York.

Part three, outbreak response team. So, the goal here of course, is to keep containing the coronavirus, keep pushing it back. But wherever we see an outbreak, even if it’s as localized as happening in a single nursing home, we want to go right at it. We want to act immediately. So, we have 10 outbreak response teams ready, teams of minimum three people led by our Health Department. Each team has an epidemiologist as the lead individual in the team, but they'll bring in additional experts in infection control, mental health, whatever it takes to assist that nursing home to address what they're facing and fix it and move forward. By the way, this is for nursing homes, and it's also for other congregate settings that serve our seniors, like assisted living facilities. So, the second there's any sign of a problem, this team can go and can oversee the response, can help control infections, make sure the PPEs are where they need to be and the supply is right, and people are using the right way. 

Part four is looking ahead to the future. Look, the future might look very different, and I think we need to start thinking about a different future. I think we need to think about a time where more and more of the care given to our seniors is given to them at home. I know from the seniors in my life, I mentioned my aunt Jean, who is living still at home in her home in Maine. And I know this was true of my mom, and my aunts, her sisters, everyone had the same wish, they wanted to stay at home no matter what. We got to make that the norm more and more. Now, we got to think about why it even got the way it got that so many people ended up in a nursing home, including a lot of seniors who didn't want to be there. Having folks at home is in many ways not only a better quality of life, but it's a better place to care for someone done right. It's a better place to make sure that people have the support they need, and by the way, if people are living at home, there's much less chance of being in a situation where they're exposed to a disease that's spreading. There's a lot to think about in terms of how to build— a really comprehensive plan to maximize home care, because that's what would take to reprogram our city towards much more focused on helping our seniors to stay home and have all the support they need. 

Let's talk about something that's been a crucial mission from day one, protecting our healthcare heroes, protecting our first responders. From the beginning of this process, we said we had to protect the people who were protecting us. The first responders across all agencies, the healthcare workers across all of the different types of hospitals, everyone who was at the front line needed protection that meant the personal protective equipment, the PPEs. And we know it was a fight from day one and again when we look back on the history of this, the scarcity that attended to this crisis from the first minute that we're still fighting against now was shocking in this land of plenty, but I want to thank all the people in all of the agencies and the hospitals, all the great people at emergency management, everyone who bonded together to create a system to get the PPEs we needed and I got to tell you, I was deeply, deeply involved in that process and it was not only a matter of life and death and people knew it. That means the N95s, the face shields, the goggles, the gloves, the surgical gowns, the face masks, meaning the surgical masks. All of those items are now in sufficient supply to get us through the month of May to protect our first responders and our healthcare heroes. That's progress, that means all hospitals can be provided with what they need, nursing homes, as we just discussed. The folks at the medical examiner’s office who do such important work, again, often unsung heroes and we thank them for all they do, it's not easy. It's painful often, but they do such good work. And of course, FDNY, NYPD, correction, all of the agencies that need the PPEs we're providing for them and any of the other key agencies that have PPE needs. By the end of this year, we will have in place a 90-day supply, three months’ supply of critical PPEs. We will have in place 4,000 full-service ventilators that will not be the ones that are in use in hospitals, four in reserves in reserve with a maintenance program to keep them in good shape. We'll be ready no matter what is thrown at us in the future. And we'll have the ability to build right here in New York City what we need if we ever find that the supplies, we depended on are failing us, we'll be able to go into high gear in this City and cover a lot of that gap right here.

In every crisis, new issues emerge, we don't even understand yet the full magnitude of the crisis we're living through right now. So, here's one that our healthcare leadership is now seeing and are very worried about and we need to act on it together. And this is something you can act on, particularly parents, grandparents, you can act on this. Right now, the issue is vaccinations, not the vaccine we hope for with the coronavirus, just the everyday vaccinations that kids get to keep them safe. The— vaccination rate in this City, this is striking, the vaccination rate in this city has been falling during this crisis and the sheer magnitude of it has become clear to us in the last few days. The reasons are obvious, doctor's offices have been closed in so many cases, families are staying home. We've had to focus on the most urgent needs in healthcare throughout, it makes sense that even parents, grandparents, other guardians, family members who wanted to get a child vaccinated might not have known where to turn or might have been hesitant to go out and get it done, given everything else going on. So our Health Department looked at the citywide vaccination rates for our children, looked at the number of vaccine doses administered and compared the period from March 23rd when this crisis had really gone into high gear to May 9th so about six weeks compared that period of time this year to the same period last year and what we found was quite shocking and troubling. The number of vaccine doses administered over that period this year versus last year for kids in the category two years old or younger, there's been a 42 percent drop in the number of vaccinations. For kids older than two years old, this is shocking and a 91 percent drop in vaccinations. Well, I'll give you a comparison, the same six-week period of time last year, 2019 almost 400,000 doses were administered in this City in the six-week period this year, fewer than 150,000. So, something has to be done immediately to address this and we intend to work with parents and families to do that right now.  A child who gets one of these diseases is likely to need to be hospitalized and they're likely to be more susceptible to contracting COVID. We know that anybody with a preexisting condition can be more vulnerable to COVID, so having pneumonia or respiratory disease makes that child both more susceptible, to contracting COVID and more vulnerable to the effect the COVID. And we're all watching this very troubling new syndrome MIS-C we don't want to see any child contract COVID, so the pieces unfortunately start to fit together in a way that should cause parents real concern and unvaccinated child at greater threat contracting a disease that could then put them at greater threat of contract and COVID, on top of that, that combination is dangerous in and of itself. Also brings up the link between COVID and MIS-C. We don't want to see any of that happen to any child.

So, the bottom line to all parents, all family members out there, get your child vaccinated. We're in a much better situation than we were. The reality March 23rd versus today, thank God, night and day in terms of what's going on with our healthcare system and our City. So now is the time to get your child vaccinated, this is essential work. Getting your child vaccinated is essential work. Getting your child vaccinated is a reason to leave your home and whatever it takes to get your child to that vaccination, it's worth it. So, we also have to remember this is for your child and it's for everyone because once one child gets sick, it can spread to the next child. So, we have to make sure we get ahead of this. You do not need to go to a hospital facility to get a vaccination for your child. Free vaccinations are available at over a thousand New York City facilities in the Vaccines for Children Program. Health + Hospitals is offering vaccinations at all of its clinics – 70 clinics around the city. So, to make an appointment, you go to 844-NYC-4NYC. So that's the number for NYC, again 844-NYC-4NYC – call, make an appointment right away. If you're – or, if you have your own doctor you can get done with, that's great too, but let's protect our kids and protect each other by making sure all our children are vaccinated.

Part of why our voices are heard is the representation we send to Congress – that's based on the Census. The Census says how many members of Congress you get. The Census says how much federal funding you get; the census, if it's truly accurate, will give you the level of funding and representation you deserve. If it's not accurate, you literally can lose a member of the Congress; you can lose billions, many billions of dollars. So, the 2020 Census will have so much to say about the future of this city and it's being attempted against the backdrop of the biggest crisis we've dealt with in generations and we're the epicenter. So, we are really up against the wall here yet again, and we've got to find a way forward and quickly. What does this money go for? So, the pool of money that is affected by the census, one estimate puts that about $650 billion. That's the pool that we want our fair share of. That means funding for hospitals; that means money for food assistance. We all are talking about food lately. That money is federal money in so many cases, food stamps and snap benefits, money that goes to infrastructure, to schools, to transportation, mass transit. So many things revolve around that federal funding that we depend on in this city. So, let's talk about where we stand on the census right now. Today, in New York City, 49 percent of New York City households have submitted their Census response and we thank them for that. The national average right now is 59 percent, so we're well behind the country. We all understand everyone's dealing with a lot right now, and so although there is so much going on and there has been so much good effort to get to that 49 percent, we’ve all got to double down, we have to intensify our efforts. All responses are totally confidential. So, if you need more information and you're ready to fill out that form and we need you to, go to my2020census.gov, my2020census.gov. We want to get you in. We want to get everyone you know in. We need your help telling everyone that you know in your family and your neighborhood to get this done and let's get the help we deserve from Washington.

Okay, now we're going to do our daily indicators. So, day that's not perfect, but is a good day. Two out of three moving in the right direction and the one that has gone in the wrong direction is just by a little. So, it's a good day; we want to have great days though. What do we have? Well indicator one, daily number of people admitted to hospitals for suspected COVID-19 - it went up but just by a little from 57 to 63 and that is a much, much lower number to begin with than what we use to deal with. So, not too bad, but we want to do better. The daily number of people in ICUs across our public hospitals for suspected COVID-19 is down – 492 to 483. That is wonderful. And this is the one that's most universal, the percentage of people tested positive for COVID-19 citywide – down from 9 percent to 8 percent. Isn't it great to see the single digits? We've been through so much together. That is really encouraging to see, especially against the backdrop where we're doing more and more testing and getting a better and better look at what's happening to so many New Yorkers. We're now at 20,000 tests a day and growing rapidly, but the percentages are coming back better, so that's wonderful.

Residency Issue of 79th A,D, Candidate Elvis L. Santana, and More.

  There are six candidates in the race to replace soon to be former Assemblyman Michael Blake who is running for congress. Two of those candidates who asked to remain anonymous have told us that candidate Elvis L. Santana does not live in the district at his address on file at the Board of Elections, but still lives at his old address in the 85th Assembly District. There is even a recording with a woman (claiming to be a relative of Mr. Santana) saying that Mr. Santana does not live at the address in the 79th A,D,, but still lives at his old address in the 85th A.D.

We went to the Board of Elections to see just when Mr. Santana changed his registration, and his voting history which is public information. Mr. Santana changed his address on November 1, 2019, and had a voting history back to 2017 of voting in the 85th A.D. In January of 2017 he registered to vote in the 85th A.D. with a previous address in Connecticut, In 2017 Mr. Santana ran in the Democratic primary for the 17th City Council where he was knocked off the ballot. He then ran in the general election under the Empower Society line where he received 226 of the total count of 13,707 ballots. In the 79th A.D. he received 68 votes out of the total count of 5,615 ballot.

We spoke to 79th A.D. candidate Elvis L. Santana to ask him where he lives. He said that he rents a room with his cousin at the address in the 79th A.D. When we asked him about the recording of a relative who said that he still lives at his old address, Mr. Santana said that the statement was incorrect, adding that while it appears that he moved into the district just to run for office, he is happy if that is the only question his opponents have of him.

In this race there are other questions as former Assemblyman Eric Stevenson is running for his old seat having been removed from office, convicted of wrong doing, and serving time in jail by the U.S. Attorney's office. 

Candidate Chantel Jackson is running with State Senator Luis Sepulveda who is rumored to be wired after making a deal with federal authorities to stay in office to go after higher elected officials. A thirteen page document was sent to the State Senate by Sepulveda's brother who is in jail on drug related crimes, saying that Luis Sepulveda is a child molester, drug user, and drug dealer which was reported by NY1 reporter Zack Fink. Bronx Democratic County Leader Marcos Crespo made a surprise announcement that he was not seeking re-election, and current Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. announced his retirement when he is term limited out of office at the end of 2021. Senator Sepulveda is very close to Mayor Bill de Blasio who was investigated previously by the U.S. Attorney's office where it was said that there was not enough evidence then to indict the mayor. Sepulveda was with the mayor on his failed Presidential bid, and now is rumored to be in Florida with his family that has lived there for a while.