Gothamist

A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.

Gothamist

WNYC Listen Live

Donate

News

Coronavirus Updates: Day Of Remembrance For COVID Victims To Be Held March 14th

Jen Chung

and

Sydney Pereira

Published Dec 31, 2020

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 .

Refrigerated trucks in Brooklyn are being used to store coronavirus victims, with the Statue of Liberty rising in the background.

Scott Lynch / Gothamist

Jen Chung

and

Sydney Pereira

Published Dec 31, 2020

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, December 31st, 2020. Previous daily updates can be found here, and up-to-date statistics are here.

New York City is in Phase 4 of reopening now, which includes zoos, botanical gardens, museums, and gyms. Citing rising hospitalization rates, Governor Andrew Cuomo suspended indoor dining in NYC starting Monday, December 14th. After beingshut down for several weeks, NYC public schools partially reopened on December 7th for 3K-5th grade students, with students with special needs returning on December 10th. Certain parts of Staten Island remain under a zoned shutdown.

Get answers to questions you may have with our "Ask An Epidemiologist" series, or learn more about NYC COVID-19 testing options with our explainer. Here are some local and state hotlines for more information: NYC: 311; NY State Hotline: 888-364-3065; NJ State Hotline: 800-222-1222.

Here's the latest:

12:44 p.m.: New York City will hold a day of remembrance on March 14th to mark the first death from COVID-19 in the city, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Thursday.

"We need to recognize 25,000 of our fellow New Yorkers gone," de Blasio said during a press conference on Thursday. "That’s something we have to always mark going forward."

The first suspected case of the virus was announced February 1st. By March 14th, the first person in New York City died from the virus: an 82-year-old woman from Brooklyn who had been hospitalized for about 10 days.

Since then, more than 25,000 people have died in NYC of COVID-19 or suspected COVID-19. At the peak of the pandemic, hundreds of people were dying everyday. The bodies of those deceased had to be stored in freezer trucks.Funeral homes were overwhelmed. The city later called the pandemic the "largest mass fatality incident in modern NYC history."

De Blasio added: "So many we lost were the victims of disparities and inequality in our society."

The highest death rates have been among Black and Hispanic New Yorkers as a result of existing disparities among communities of color that have led to disproportionate rates of other health conditions putting them at a higher risk of severe illness from coronavirus. Though city data shows Asians had a lower death rate than white New Yorkers, one study found that when disaggregating data about Asians, Chinese New Yorkers had the highest mortality rate.

"This, tragically, was a disease that affected everyone, but it did not affect everyone equally," the mayor said.

The city is now seeing cases rise again while it mobilizes to ramp up its vaccination program with goals to do so equitably. New York City has vaccinated about 88,000 people with goals to administer 1 million doses by the end of January.

Reported cases slightly dipped to 3,259, and hospital admissions per 100,000 people over a seven-day average rose to 3.93. The positivity rate rose to 8.87% over a seven-day average, well above the city's 5% threshold.

UK Variant Found In California, Possible Second Colorado Case

The highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus that was first identified in the United Kingdom has now been detected in two states. California Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Wednesday that this strain of the virus was detected in his state.

The variant was detected in San Diego, and health officials there let the state know. Newsom made the disclosure during an online conversation with Dr. Anthony Fauci, executive director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "I don’t think Californians should feel this is something odd. This is something expected," Fauci said. He had previously said he believed the variant to be here.

The Good Samaritan Society care center is closed to the public, in Simla, Colo. The first person in the U.S. known to be infected with a new and apparently more contagious variant of the coronavirus was identified Wednesday as a Colorado National Guardsman who had been sent to help out at the nursing home struggling with an outbreak.

David Zalubowski/AP/Shutterstock

No other details about the California case were offered. Colorado said a second possible case with the UK variant may have been detected. The first confirmed case is a National Guard member who was deployed to a nursing home in Simla on December 23rd and was tested on December 24th. The second possible case is another National Guard member.

The National Guard went to the Good Samaritan Society care center after all of its 26 residents tested positive for COVID-19. Four patients died, and 20 of 34 staffers have also tested positive. The residents and staff are being tested for the variant.

Neither of the confirmed cases in Colorado and California have traveled outside of the United States.

The variant was detected in the UK in mid-September, and has been seen in about 70% of recent cases in London. The British government has now expanded lockdown measures to cover 44 million citizens—three-quarters of the country's population—and Prime Minister Boris Johnson begged everyone to stay at home on New Year's Eve, "We must face the reality that the sheer pace of the spread of this new variant requires us now to take even tougher action in some areas."

On Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo said that he believes the variant is in New York state. So far, it has not yet been seen in about 4,000 samples tested by the state, but, for some perspective, there were over 13,000 positive cases on December 29th and there have been more than 957,000 COVID total cases in the state since the beginning of the pandemic.

Tagged

COVID-19

covid-19 updates

coronavirus

Jen Chung

Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

Sydney Pereira

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

MORE news

Forest Hills Stadium can keep its concerts under deal with neighbors

Neighbors had complained of traffic and loud concerts for years.

Ryan Kost

Published Oct 22, 2026

NYC Council to grill Mamdani officials on collapsed Hunts Point Produce Market deal

Council Speaker Julie Menin called the $650 million plan "mission critical."

Elizabeth Kim

News

NYC Council to grill Mamdani officials on collapsed Hunts Point Produce Market deal

Council Speaker Julie Menin called the $650 million plan "mission critical."

Elizabeth Kim

NYPD arrests 17-year-old in fatal Midtown subway platform shooting

Charles Lane

Ex-Adams aide accused of pocketing kickbacks from community program funds

Samantha Max

MTA to begin 6-year project to upgrade signal tech on A and C lines in Brooklyn and Queens

Ramsey Khalifeh

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 .