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Coronavirus Updates: Cuomo Extends Shutdown Until May 15th
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Elizabeth Kim
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Sydney Pereira
Published Apr 16, 2020
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Governor Andrew Cuomo / Flickr
By
Elizabeth Kim
and
Sydney Pereira
Published Apr 16, 2020
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This is our daily update of breaking COVID-19 news for Thursday, April 16th, 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].
Billionaire George Soros Pledges $37 Million To Help NYC Workers Impacted By Pandemic
George Soros
Photo from georgesoros.com
3:45 p.m. George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist and Democratic donor, will give $37 million to assist vulnerable low-wage workers and families in New York City, including those who are undocumented, who have been hurt by the coronavirus pandemic. The money is part of a $130 million global grant from Soros's Open Society Foundations to help communities around the world.
An initial $20 million will be directed toward to immigrant workers and their families, who are not eligible for most federal stimulus funding. The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City will disburse the funding for up to 20,000 undocumented workers who have lost their jobs or income as a result of the pandemic, in amounts ranging from $400 for an individual to $1,000 for a family.
The foundation will provide $15 million toward the city's public school communities, by supporting emergency childcare for essential workers and remote learning.
Another roughly $2 million of the funding will go toward community groups that encourage the government to release detainees in the face of the coronavirus and to rethink mass incarceration policies. It will also include grants toward supporting homeless and other at-risk individuals.
“The scale of this pandemic has laid bare the fault lines and injustices of our world,” Soros said, in a statement. “We missed the opportunity to create a more just economy after the financial crisis of 2008 and provide a social safety net for the workers who are the heart of our societies. Today, we must change direction and ask ourselves: What kind of world will emerge from this catastrophe, and what can we do to make it a better one?”
Bitta Mostofi, the city's commissioner of immigrant affairs, said the city hopes to get the money to undocumented immigrants within the next few weeks.
"This emergency cash relief effort is the beginning of this kind of response and something that we hope to be able to build on," Mostofi said.
Earlier this week, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a $6 million gift to provide fresh meals for the 30,000 healthcare workers at city hospitals. Working with Chef José Andrés and his nonprofit organization World Central Kitchen, Bloomberg Philanthropies plans to establish a grab-and-go cafeteria at all 11 public hospitals. The first two kitchens opened on Wednesday, with the remainder set to begin operating by April 27th.
Beth Fertig contributed reporting
Cuomo Extends Shutdown Until May 15th
1:15 p.m. Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday that he would extend the state’s stay-at-home order until May 15th, adding that the measure would be in coordination with other states in the region.
The news comes as Cuomo faces increasing questions about how New York will reopen as virus infections appear to slow down.
The number of total hospitalizations has been gradually ticking down in recent days, falling below 18,000 for the first time in more than a week. Patients in intensive care units decreased by 134, the biggest one-day decline since the crisis began.
“We’ve controlled the beast,” Cuomo said, during his press briefing. “We’ve brought the rate of spread down.”
The state on Wednesday added 606 deaths from coronavirus. Although still staggering, the sum, tallied from 577 hospitals and 29 in nursing homes, marks the lowest daily death toll in 10 days.
To date, the state has recorded more than 12,000 deaths. That figure is an underestimate. New York state is in the process of counting probable deaths, which New York City began doing this week.
For a second day in a row, Cuomo outlined his plans for a phased recovery in which businesses that are considered the most essential and pose the least risk for spread of infection would open first.
He called on businesses to "reimagine" how their workplaces would look in that scheme.
Once again, Cuomo stressed the importance of widespread testing, which he described as “the single best tool to inform decisions.”
Although the state has tested more than 500,000 people to date, there are 19 million people in the state. Of that total, 9 million are categorized as workers.
Later today, the president is expected to announce new federal guidelines on social distancing which could enable businesses to reopen. Experts, however, have warned that ending shutdowns too early could lead to a resurgence.
Starting on Friday evening, New Yorkers (age 2+) will now be required to wear masks or face coverings when they are in public and unable to socially distance at least six feet from others.
Face coverings must also be worn on public transit. On Thursday, the governor added that individuals using for-hire vehicles also have to wear coverings as do the drivers.
Asked about how low-income New Yorkers could afford to buy masks, Cuomo said he was working with local governments on coming up with a solution.
Cuomo has said New Yorkers should be prepared for a "new normal" rather than a return to society as it once was. No civil penalties have been outlined for those who disobey the face covering order, but the governor said there could be a fine. The measure comes as the weather starts to warm and when people may start to become increasingly restless with the stay-at-home order.
"I’m sorry it makes people unhappy," he said. "I do not consider it a major burden. It really is a simple measure that can save lives."
But asked if he would wear a mask, Cuomo replied, "When I am in public circumstances? Yes. Here in this room? No."
NYC Has No Plans To Reopen Beaches This Summer
12:10 p.m.: Mayor Bill de Blasio said there are no plans to open beaches for swimming this summer, in order to maintain social distancing during the pandemic.
Imagine Coney Island during the summertime, the mayor said during a press briefing on Thursday . "I don't see that happening anytime soon."
"But the notion of having lifeguards and people coming to the beach like normal, we don't have that in our sights yet," de Blasio said. "Just for everyone's sanity, lower expectations."
Outdoor pools may also stay shuttered as a part of the city's budget proposal—a part of what de Blasio described as the anticipated "painful" cuts to the city's proposed budget to make up for an estimated $7.4 billion in tax revenue losses over the current and next fiscal year, according to an estimate from the Office of Management and Budget. (The city's Independent Budget Office estimated lost tax revenue would be $2.3 billion more than that, at $9.7 billion.)
De Blasio's budget proposal totals $89.3 billion, about $6 billion less than a January proposal and a 3.7 percent decrease from the budget adopted in June 2019.
A laundry list of cuts were proposed to make up for the lost revenues: from $43 million in savings through delaying 3k expansion to some school districts in NYC and $10 million through delaying the installation of air conditioners in schools to $124 million by suspending the summer youth employment program. The placard abuse enforcement team may be cut, saving $1.2 million in the next two fiscal years.
$4 billion were drawn from the city's reserves, and about $2 billion in federal aid from previous stimulus packages and FEMA aid will also help the city close its budget gap, according to the mayor, who added the city is still required to pay for about one-quarter of the FEMA aid.
The mayor urged Congress to provide more funding to NYC in its next stimulus bill, which is currently being negotiated in Congress. The last $2 trillion package allotted $1.4 billion to the city government—what de Blasio called "immoral" at the time.
"I made clear to the President his hometown needs him," de Blasio said Thursday. "If the President of the United States speaks up, let's be clear, if the President raises his voice, the Republican Senate will follow, period."
He called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a "roadblock" to New York getting additional federal funding.
"If the federal government fails us, then I want to be really clear, the notion of this city recovering—it doesn't work if we can't do the basics," de Blasio said.
The mayor also announced that new hospital admissions, intensive care unit patients, and the percentage of people who tested positive for COVID-19 all ticked upwards between Monday and Tuesday—three indicators the city is tracking to determine when it is safe to open businesses again.
"This is not what we're looking for," de Blasio said at a press briefing on Thursday.
He called the numbers a "tough truth" showing that the downward trend of the three indicators the city is tracking to monitor the direction of the pandemic "won't necessarily be fast, it won't be all in a straight line."
People admitted to hospitals rose from 370 on April 13th to 386 on April 14th. The number of new intensive care unit patients in city hospitals rose from 868 to 887. The percentage of positive cases for the virus rose from 53 to 55 percent and 76 to 78 percent, citywide and in public health labs, respectively.
"We believe this is truth and New Yorkers always want the blunt truth and it tells us we've got a lot more work to do, but it's also a reminder that the progress we have made is all because of you," de Blasio said during a press briefing on Thursday.
De Blasio urged New Yorkers to continue social distancing and sheltering in place.
Beginning April 22nd, the city will make 11,000 rooms in hotels available for healthcare workers, households that are overcrowded, and people who are homeless. De Blasio said under previous projections, hotels were expected to become hospital beds for tens of thousands of patients, but despite the change, "we are far from out of the woods," he said.
Reached for comment on the mayor's proposed budget, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said in a statement, "This is the beginning of the budget negotiations process. The Council did not approve these proposed cuts, and will work to make sound budgetary choices to help all New Yorkers as we battle the COVID-19 pandemic."
David Cruz contributed reporting
A sign outside Zabar's on the Upper West Side, April 15, 2020
Kate Hinds / WNYC
U.S. Reports Another 5.2 Million In Jobless Claims, Including 396,000 New Yorkers
Another 5.2 million people filed for unemployment benefits nationwide in the last week, as the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic continues to reverberate throughout the world.
All told, 22 million people have reported losing their jobs over the last four weeks. That means that the country has lost roughly the net number of jobs created since the last recession.
Here in New York, 396,000 more jobless claims were added, for a total of 1.2 million over the past four weeks. The number of unemployed in New York last year over the same period was only 50,000.
New York's job losses are likely to continue to rise through the month as processing of unemployment insurance claims catches up. The state's Department of Labor has struggled to process the unprecedented number of claims; last Friday, the agency launched a streamlined application that it redesigned with the help of Google.
A New School report on the economic devastation of COVID-19 released on Wednesday projected that claims level could double in the coming weeks.
"New York City’s economy is in a more precarious state than at any time since the 1970s fiscal and economic crisis," the authors James Parrott and Lina Moe wrote. "The current public health and economic crisis far surpasses the personal, psychological, and economic devastation wrought by 9/11, the 2008-09 Great Recession, or Superstorm Sandy."
The report, which analyzed the Department of Labor filings up to April 4th, found that statewide, accommodation and food services workers made up 25 percent of unemployment claims, the largest share. It was followed by arts and entertainment, with 20.8 percent, and construction, with 16.2 percent.
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]
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Sydney Pereira
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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