Still on PAUSE
- Governor Cuomo announced today that New York State’s PAUSE will continue an additional two weeks, extending until April 15.
- PAUSE actually stands for something: Policy Assure Uniform Security Everyone
- Adam Levy suggests this is a ‘backronym’. Editors are still weighing the issue.
- NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams is calling for an even more serious lockdown for the city, suggesting closing parks and schools to prevent further spread. Read more in Gothamist.
- Mayor Bill de Blasio authorized fines of $250-500 for violators of social distancing rules.
The Not-a-Lockdown
- President Trump issued a ‘travel advisory’ for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
- “Nothing that we haven’t been doing,” says Cuomo.
- Rhode Island Governor repealed the executive order that went public yesterday that called for cars with New York license plates to be pulled over, mandatory quarantine, etc.
There’s a new test!
- Developed at Wadsworth, a DOH center in Albany.
- Current test: a ‘nasopharyngeal culture’ or a ‘nose swab’ test.
- It’s pretty uncomfortable. “Like being stabbed in the brain.”
This is how far back we have to put the swab to test you for #COVID19.
— Jessica Peck, DNP APRN CPNP-PC (@DrPeckPNP) March 29, 2020
You might want to follow medical recommendations and #StayHome. pic.twitter.com/gCMqUdpsEk
- Wadsworth test: shorter, less intrusive ‘saliva and short nasal swab’ test.
- It’s quicker, more comfortable, and doesn’t require as much PPE for people administering it (keeps doctors safer).
- Also, you can do it yourself (with hospital workers present), which always feels better than someone else sticking a q-tip into your nose.
- This is all before it gets sent to a lab and analyzed, but any speed improvement helps.
- Should start using this next week.
We’re all talking about this curve, flatten the curve. At what point on the other side of the curve do you go back to work? There is no answer. I think the answer’s going to be in testing.
Governor Andrew Cuomo
Homeless
- The Urban Justice Center discovered a planned ‘street sweep’ in Brooklyn, at Parkside Ave & Ocean Ave in Flatbush.
.@NYCMayor – another sweep of homeless people and their belongings during a pandemic?
— Safety Net Project of the Urban Justice Center (@SafetyNetUJC) March 29, 2020
What are you thinking?
Here is yet another notice announcing a street sweep – this time in Brooklyn.
Scheduled for Monday.
The @CDCgov explicitly advise not to do this. pic.twitter.com/Ynn2jjndpa
Hospitals
- According to Dr. Mitchell Katz, President of NYC Dept. of Health and Hospitals said today that “everyone who has needed a ventilator has received one.”
- Big fat Navy medical ship The USNS Comfort is arriving tomorrow.
- 1000 bed capacity.
- Not for COVID-19 patients, but to take all the overflow from other hospitals
- The dock actually had to be dredged in order to accept a ship of that size. What was planned as a 14 day job was finished in 8, and the Comfort is docking early.
- Over 76,000 healthcare workers have volunteered in New York State.
- A field hospital is being erected in the East Meadow of Central Park.
- The Central Park field hospital is a coordinated effort by NYC, Mount Sanai, The Central Park Conservancy, and Samaritan’s Purse (a christian charity organization).
- The President of the Central Park Conservancy, Elizabeth W. Smith, tested positive for COVID-19 on March 9.
- “Patient Zero” in New Rochelle, a 50-year-old lawyer named Lawrence Garbuz, has gone home. He was so sick they had him in a medically induced coma for some time. Read the story in the New York Post.
- The Governor wants both Public and Private hospitals to work together.
- Governor Cuomo asked Mayor de Blasio and Comptroller Scott Stringer to come up with a plan to get public hospitals in the city to ‘work together’. “When one hospital is overwhelmed, the other hospitals have to flex to help that hospital, and vice versa.” They have 14 days to come up with a plan.
- Governor Cuomo said he was going to meet with the organization of private hospitals in New York tomorrow to see if they can consolidate their efforts and, eventually, possibly unify efforts with the public hospitals. There were no specifics of what the Governor intends to ask of GNYHA or how it will be implemented.
Nursing Homes
- Nursing home residents are 15% of New York’s COVID-19 deaths. The City reported on how the state’s elder care facilities are keeping up.
New York’s Share of Federal Coronavirus Money
- Mayor de Blasio confirmed $1.4 billion in federal funds coming to the city as part of the third stimulus.
- New York has been offered $6.7 billion in emergency money to offset the state’s medical costs, as of the second stimulus bill.
- But Governor ANdrew Cuomo won’t take it because the bill prevents states from restructuring Medicaid. Since Cuomo wants to do that, it’s holding up New York actually receiving and using that money. “It disqualified this state from funding and he knew that when he passed it.” -Cuomo
- Senator Chuck Schumer responded, saying “We agreed that there is significant money for New York in the bills we passed, but that much more is needed.”
- Read the story in the Daily News.
Oh, Yeah, There’s Also A New York Budget and it is Due on April 1st
- If New York ends up not getting its share of federal coronavirus recovery funds, Governor Cuomo suggested the inevitable cuts would come from education.
- “How do you fund the schools?” -Governor Cuomo
The Mafia
- If there aren’t any sports, there’s no illegal gambling, and with no illegal gambling, the mob is taking a hit. Read more in the Post.
Jails
- Total released so far: 650 from the NYC Jail system.
- Mayor de Blasio also noted the jail population is down by a total of 860, due to additional factors like falling crime and lower arrests.
- Regarding juvenile detainees specifically (which we mentioned in an earlier dispatch, and The City covered in depth) Mayor de Blasio reported that “there’s been a 67 percent reduction in one category, 53 percent reduction in another category,” and that “it was not a huge population to begin with.” We don’t have the actual numbers yet, or an outline of what categories he was referring to.
Transportation
- MTA ridership down 86% from the same time last year.
- Mayor said people are still reporting packed subway cars, and to call 3-1-1 if anyone sees them.
- Police will be clearing cars they see are too crowded.
- Staten Island Ferry is moving to hourly schedule
- It will remain 24/7
Police
- 13% of the NYPD is out sick.
- Police Commissioner Shea estimates that, by tomorrow morning, 900 will have tested positive.
The Numbers
| Friday 4/17, 1pm | Monday 4/20, 2:30pm | |
| Total Cases | 122148 | 132467 |
| – Manhattan | 15952 | 16987 |
| – Brooklyn | 32499 | 35203 |
| – Queens | 37447 | 40714 |
| – The Bronx | 27014 | 29505 |
| – Staten Island | 9166 | 9986 |
| Hospitalization Rate | 26.8% | 26.2% |
| ICU Rate | ?? | ?? |
| Confirmed Deaths | 7890(NYC) / 8893(NYS) | 9101(NYC) / 10022(NYS) |
| Probable Deaths | 4309 | 4582 |
This weekend: 1200+ deaths
Up Next
Tomorrow, we’ll be publishing our guide to rent in New York City, trying to bring together all the resources available to New Yorkers, and help answer questions like:
- How am I going to pay rent this month?
- What’s going to happen if I can’t?
- I’m a freelancer. Is there any assistance for me?
We’ll also be releasing an interview with Alexandra Skaggs of Barrons (@alexandraskaggs), where she explains to Alex Brook Lynn what’s happening with the markets, and what the government is doing about it.
In the meantime, consider supporting us on Patreon.
