After worst week in pandemic deaths, New York sees signs of hope
Mark Abramson / New York Times
Pedestrians wearing face masks cross the street near Union Square in New York on March 27.
NEW YORK >> New York is wrapping up its worst week in deaths so far of the coronavirus outbreak, but there were a few signs of hope.
THE NUMBERS
At the end of the day Saturday, there were 18,707 people hospitalized with the virus in the state. That was up only 73 since the previous day.
The bad news has been that large numbers of people are still dying every day. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Sunday that 758 people died Saturday, the sixth day in a row that the toll topped 700.
In all, 5,226 people were killed by the virus in the week that ended Saturday. That’s raised the total number of deaths in the state to 9,385.
WILL SCHOOLS STAY CLOSED?
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New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio is doubling down on his plan to close schools in the nation’s largest district, despite confusion over his authority to do so.
De Blasio announced Saturday that the public school sites in the city’s 1.1 million-student school district would close for the rest of the academic year to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
“We were quite certain it was the right thing to do,” de Blasio said today when asked about the conflict.
But Cuomo said school closings would have to be coordinated with districts surrounding the city.
De Blasio said his goal to reopen school sites by September, adding that high school graduates may have to go without a commencement ceremony.
HOTELS FOR THE HOMELESS
De Blasio says the city is going forward with a plan to move a total of 6,000 homeless people from shelters to commercial hotels to try to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
The plan involves moving people who have tested positive for the virus or those showing COVID-19 symptoms. The effort is also is meant to thin out shelters where it’s “difficult to achieve social distancing,” the mayor said.
The city says 20 homeless people have died from the virus, 19 of whom were hospitalized when they died. There are about 58,000 people in the shelter system and another 4,000 or so on city streets.
AN EMPTY ST. PATRICK’S ON EASTER
The coronavirus pandemic means that this Easter Sunday, there will be no congregants in the pews at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan will lead a televised Mass in a broadcast expected to draw a large audience.
The Archdiocese of New York says fewer than 600 people would tune in to watch the cathedral’s Sunday Mass live streams before the pandemic. That number was up to more than 100,000 on Palm Sunday.
