Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
Coronavirus Updates: NYC Will Give Correction Officers Free Coronavirus Testing If They're Exposed Or Showing Symptoms
By
Elizabeth Kim
and
Sydney Pereira
Published Apr 9, 2020
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
George Wirt/Shutterstock
By
Elizabeth Kim
and
Sydney Pereira
Published Apr 9, 2020
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
This is our daily update of breaking COVID-19 news for Thursday, April 9th, 2020. Previous daily updates can be found here, and up-to-date statistics are here.
Read our guide to understanding New York on PAUSE, NY's stay-at-home order; a look at preparing for the spread of coronavirus is here, and if you have lingering questions about the virus, here is our regularly updated coronavirus FAQ. Here are some local and state hotlines for more information: NYC: 311; NY State Hotline: 888-364-3065; NJ State Hotline: 800-222-1222.
Are you a healthcare worker or another kind of essential worker? Email us what you're seeing at [email protected].
4:50 p.m.: The city’s Department of Correction will give free COVID-19 tests at various sites in NYC and Long Island to correction officers after the officers’ union sued the city to demand various measures to help mitigate the rapidly spreading outbreak in the city’s jail system.
Testing sites will be provided through Northwell Health’s urgent care locations for DOC staff with symptoms or who have been exposed to someone diagnosed with the novel coronavirus under an agreement reached between the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association and the DOC, according to the union.
“Our union has always felt that we should not have to be in court or in the media every day to fight for our members' safety. But since the Department failed to do its job, we needed to leverage every possible resource to help our members during this unprecedented crisis,” the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association President Elias Husamudeen said in a statement.
Six officers have died of the virus, according to Husamudeen. A captain has also died. An inmate who was held on a parole violation at Rikers died this week due to coronavirus, marking the first death among those who are incarcerated in the city's jails.
As of Wednesday morning, 441 DOC staff had the virus, according to a daily update from the city’s oversight agency, the Board of Correction. 287 incarcerated individuals and 75 health workers have coronavirus as well.
Husamudeen added there is “much more work ahead,” including making sure staff do not have to return to work until cleared by personal doctors or securing duty death benefits.
The union sued the city last week, demanding N95 mask distribution, gloves, and hand sanitizer. The city says it is providing masks to all correction officers, but only those who come into contact with detainees with COVID-19 receive N95 respirators due to supply shortages.
The DOC deferred to the Law Department. Law Department spokesperson Nicholas Paolucci referred to his statement issued when the lawsuit was filed, saying, “The administration is deeply concerned about the health and safety of its employees and has been working with all involved in the justice system to ensure that our correctional facilities are safe, both for those who serve the city in a very difficult job and the detainees in their custody.”
According to Mayor Bill de Blasio, nearly 1,200 people have been released from NYC jails in recent weeks to increase social distancing at city jail facilities.
As Racial Disparities Become Clear, NY State Expands Testing In Minority Communities
3:30 p.m. Following the release of data showing that Latinos and blacks in New York City are dying from coronavirus at twice the rate of whites, Governor Andrew Cuomo on Thursday announced five new testing facilities intended to serve mostly minority communities in Queens, Brooklyn and the South Bronx.
Beginning on Friday at 12:30 p.m., a mobile testing facility will be located at a Sears parking lot at 2307 Beverly Road in Brooklyn. And next week, the state will open walk-in facilities at three yet-to-named health care centers in the South Bronx, Jamaica, Queens, and in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
The walk-in facilities will be by appointment only.
On Monday, a drive-through mobile testing facility opened at the Club House at Aqueduct Race Track Parking Lot, 110-00 Rockaway Blvd, in Queens.
Those considered highest risk will be prioritized for testing, according to a press release from the governor's office. Residents who want to be tested should call 888-364-3065 to set up an appointment.
According to preliminary data from the city, the death rate for Latino residents was the highest, at about 22 confirmed coronavirus deaths per 100,000 people. Black New Yorkers were a close second, with a rate of 20 deaths per 100,000 people. The rate at which white people die from the disease is currently 10 per 100,000 people.
Cuomo said that he would appoint a panel of experts from SUNY Albany, the Department of Health and the Northwell Health hospital system to examine why Latinos and blacks were more vulnerable to dying from the virus.
"Let's understand it but let's also address it," he said. "Where do people live? Where do people work? What's the socioeconomic status? Where do they socialize? What are the previous health conditions? Why do we have these higher rates and what do we do about it? Let's do that."
Last month, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced expanded testing at 17 city hospitals and community health centers across the five boroughs. But only one day after the testing facilities were open, the city abruptly asked healthcare providers to cancel appointments in an effort to save the tests for hospital patients, as well as to conserve the personal protective equipment healthcare staffers were required to use for each test.
One of the testing facilities which saw long lines of people was at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens. The hospital, which serves a largely immigrant community, would later become one of the epicenters of the crisis.
NY State Sets Another Grim Record For Single-Day Death Toll
12:30 p.m. For the third day in a row, the number of daily deaths from coronavirus recorded in New York state soared to a record high, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced during a press conference on Thursday.
Cuomo reported that another 799 people have died from the disease, marking the highest single-day death toll attributed to COVID-19 to date. Since Monday, the deaths have numbered over 730 each day.
He described the mounting fatalities as "so shocking and painful and breathtaking."
Altogether, at least 7,067 people statewide have died from COVID-19.
In addition to supplies and medical personnel, the state will now have to bring in additional funeral directors.
"If you ever told me that as governor I would have to take these actions, I couldn’t even contemplate where we are now," Cuomo said.
News of the worsening death toll comes as the state sees further evidence that the spread of the virus is slowing. Currently, 18,000 people in New York state are in hospitals for coronavirus treatment. On Wednesday, the state saw the net increase of hospitalizations go up by 200 patients, the lowest increase since the early days of the crisis. The number of those requiring intensive care units and ventilators has also been trending downward over the last four to five days.
New York state Department of Health
Asked about Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to gradually relax restrictions as early as May, Cuomo said that rapid testing was the key to getting workers back to their jobs, but he declined to provide a timeline of his own.
"I’m not going to guess when the data will say when we should change our practices," he said."I have no idea. I don't know if that curve goes up or if that curve goes down. We’ll know when we get there."
"I’ve spoken to the smartest people in the planet about this," he added. "And the smartest person will say I don’t know."
In what should come as welcome news to those filing for unemployment benefits, the state plans to launch a new application system on Thursday night.
As of Thursday, the state Department of Labor has processed 600,000 unemployment claims, and another 200,000 have been partially processed, according to Melissa DeRosa, the secretary of state.
She said the current online application required people filing claims to call the department if they left any fields blank. As a result, the agency has been inundated with phone calls. There are now 1,000 staffers answering the phones.
The state has worked with Google to come with a streamlined application that will eliminate the need for people to call. Between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., the system will be temporary shut down for a reboot. Afterwards, people should be able to access the new application, DeRosa said.
Last week, another 345,000 people in New York state filed for unemployment benefits, bringing the three-week total to over 800,000. In 2019, the average weekly number of jobless claims in New York was 15,845.
De Blasio Lays Out Conditions Under Which NYC May Relieve Restrictions
10:45 a.m. Following some encouraging signs this week on the demand for ventilators and hospitalizations, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday laid out a rough roadmap to normalcy.
Beginning on Monday, New York City will release data on the number of people admitted to hospitals and intensive care units for suspected COVID-19 conditions.
He said those two data points, along with the number of people who test positive for the disease, must show a downward trend for 10 days to two weeks before New Yorkers can see the restrictions due to coronavirus relaxed.
”All three have to move together," he said, during a press conference, adding that the city needed to see a "clean, clear pattern."
Mayor de Blasio at his press briefing on April 9, 2020
Mayor de Blasio's YouTube
The mayor did not foresee any major changes in rules being possible until May or June.
However, he said he would decide in a few days whether there was any chance of reopening city schools before the end of the academic year in June.
Any recovery, he said, would be conditioned on more and better testing provided by the federal government.
It is not clear whether the mayor has the unilateral power to loosen social distancing or stay-at-home measures, both of which were handed down by the governor. Governor Andrew Cuomo has said that any coronavirus response must be statewide, and preferably regional in nature. Like the mayor, he has said that extensive testing of returning workers could be a way of restarting the economy. He has not said when that could begin. The state has developed a test to detect antibodies that form in the blood in response to a COVID-19 infection. Cuomo has also said it would invest in companies to develop a rapid coronavirus test.
Although he presented a glimmer of hope, de Blasio warned against lax behavior resulting in a resurgence of the virus. Should that occur, the city might be forced to further tighten restrictions.
"No one wants that," he said. "But we have to be honest that that is a real possibility."
He urged New Yorkers who witness social distancing infractions to call 311.
6.6 Million Americans Added To Jobless Rolls, Including 345,000 New Yorkers
In what has become a staggering weekly measure of the economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic, more than 6.6 million people in the U.S. filed for unemployment claims last week.
Thursday's report from the U.S. Labor Department represented the second highest weekly jobless claim number in history. Last week's figure was revised even higher from an original estimate of 6.6 million to 6.9 million.
Altogether more than 16 million people in the country have lost their jobs in a span of three weeks. The prior record for three-week cumulative unemployment claims was 2 million in 1982.
Here in New York, another 345,000 people filed for unemployment benefits, 22,000 fewer than last week. The New York State Department of Labor has reported a 16,000 percent increase in phone calls and a nearly 900 percent increase in web traffic, compared to a typical week. The surge of unemployment applications has overwhelmed the agency, which has dedicated 700 people to answer phones and has said it would hire hundreds more. Still, people seeking benefits continue to complain about not being able to get through to the office. The agency is now instructing New Yorkers not to call unless instructed to do so after filling their application online.
On Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New Yorkers filing for unemployment would receive an additional $600 immediately. The period of unemployment benefits will also be extended, from 26 to 39 weeks.
The governor has talked about the need to restart the economy through the use of rapid testing on returning workers, but he has not indicated any timeline.
In recent days, both Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio have been increasingly questioned about their response to the pandemic, and whether they were too slow compared to other areas like San Francisco and the state of California, which issued stay-at-home orders before New York.
Cuomo dismissed the criticism on Wednesday, saying “I think New York was early and that the actions we took were more dramatic than most.” However, California announced a stay-at-home order on March 19, one day before New York's PAUSE plan was announced.
On Thursday morning, Mayor de Blasio was asked on NPR's Morning Edition whether it was a mistake to have told New Yorkers on March 15th, "If you love your neighborhood bar go there now." The city had more than 300 confirmed cases by that point.
"No, because I said that literally about a day before they were all about to be shut down,” de Blasio responded.
As of Wednesday evening, more than 80,000 people in New York City have tested positive for COVID-19. At least 4,260 have died across the five boroughs.
Tagged
covid-19 updates
coronavirus
Elizabeth Kim
Elizabeth Kim is a reporter on the People and Power desk who covers mayoral power. She previously covered the pandemic, housing, redevelopment and public spaces. A native of Queens, she speaks fluent Mandarin. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
Read more
Sydney Pereira
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Mamdani names re-entry specialist as chair of Rikers oversight board
Christopher Watler will help the department that a federal monitor says remains in crisis.
By
Ryan Kost
Published Oct 6, 2026 at 3:52 p.m. ET
NYC weighs expanding upstate reservoir following drought
The Delaware River Basin Commission is evaluating options to increase water storage, including expanding a reservoir in New York City.
By
Rosemary Misdary
News
NYC weighs expanding upstate reservoir following drought
The Delaware River Basin Commission is evaluating options to increase water storage, including expanding a reservoir in New York City.
By
Rosemary Misdary
Legionella found in Staten Island building's water system after 2 positive cases
By
Catalina Gonella
Legal 'loophole' helps NY Gov. Kathy Hochul, Bruce Blakeman raise millions
By
Jon Campbell
Police identify 2 men wanted for stabbing an off-duty NYPD officer
By
Ben Feuerherd
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .