Briefing 3/26: Sakura Matsuri Canceled, Online Metrocard Exchange, & The Brooklyn Hospital Center On The Frontlines

Good morning! Hospitals need blood amid the coronavirus crisis. Have you considered donating?

• The new numbers are out. As of 10 a.m., the total amount of positive cases in NYC is 21,873. In Brooklyn, that number has gone up to 5,705 cases. There is also a total of 281 coronavirus-related deaths in the city. Remember, with an increase in testing will be an increase in numbers. Keep staying at home!
• The NYS Department of Public Service is ordering utilities to suspend rate increases. Utility rate increases that were to go in effect on April 1st, have been postponed, Governor Cuomo said.
• The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has canceled this year’s Sakura Matsuri, the annual cherry blossom festival. Other spring programs in April have also been canceled.
• A woman created an online Metrocard exchange to pair work-from-home New Yorkers who don’t need their monthly cards, with essential workers that are still using the trains and buses, the Queens Eagle reported.
• A Brooklyn nurse is making miracles happen amid the crisis. The NY Post reported, “She tends to patients when there are not enough nurses, makes sure her team has protective equipment and ensures that exhausted workers are taking breaks to eat or even just have ‘a drink of water.'”
• Council Members Chaim Deutsch and Kalman Yeger, State Senator Simcha Felder, and Assemblymember Simcha Eichenstein are calling for an indefinite suspension on the plastic ban. They argue that we should not be using reusable bans in a crisis because f the health risks, Kings County Politics reported.
• The NY Times did a wonderful story on Brooklyn Hospital Center’s fight to fight the coronavirus. “The 175-year-old hospital — where Walt Whitman brought peaches and poems to comfort the Civil War wounded and where Anthony Fauci, the White House adviser who is now American’s most famous doctor, was born — is scaling up, as Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has required all New York hospitals to do,” the Times reported.
• In response to the crisis, the Bergen and Brooklyn United Music & Arts Program will be providing free, hot brown bag lunches and dinners daily. With two serving times: 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM and 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM.
• If you are struggling to reach out to the NYS Department of Labor to apply for unemployment, reach out to Council Member Chaim Deutsch’s office. He said he can help.