Apr 17, 2020 2 min read Announcements

Briefing 4/17: 500 Coronavirus Patients Safely Discharged From Maimonides Medical Center & More

Mayor Bill de Blasio visited NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island to thank and applaud medical staff, and deliver 600 care packages of food and personal care products for hospital workers and their families. (Photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

Happy Friday! The coronavirus pandemic still isn’t over yet, so please continue staying at home and practice social distancing rules.

As of 2:30 p.m., there are 122,148 total positive coronavirus cases in NYC. There are 7,890 confirmed coronavirus-related deaths. There are also 4,309 probable coronavirus deaths. The numbers keep rising.
For some good news, Maimonides Medical Center announced that 500 coronavirus patients have been safely discharged. What a milestone!
Some Mister Softee ice cream trucks are driving around Brooklyn with their jingles, ABC7 reported, though, legally they are within their rights as food truck workers have been deemed essential.
Jillian Primiano is a nurse in the emergency room at Wyckoff Hospital. She shared her experiences in detail at CBS News. “The air in the emergency room is full of COVID right now, and everyone inside wears an N95 mask. There are no visitors allowed in any New York City hospital except for birthing partners and people saying goodbye, but death usually comes so suddenly that there’s no time for that,” she wrote.
Martin Greenfield Clothiers in East Williamsburg is shifting gears and is now making reusable masks for healthcare workers, ABC7 reported.
One Brooklyn woman lost three of her grandparents to the coronavirus in just one week. “The family’s plan is to, when we are all able to be together, when we are able to travel, we will all go down to Puert Rico and take everyone’s ashes with us and bring them all there. All of them wanted to go to Puerto Rico,” she told NY1.
NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Council Member Carline Rivera announced legislation to open NYC streets for cyclists and pedestrians during the pandemic. “New Yorkers don’t have the street space they need to maintain proper social distancing, which we know is essential in this public health crisis,” Johnson said.
45 NYC doormen and janitors have died from coronavirus, the NY Post reported.
Even though the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) closed its physical doors due to coronavirus on March 16, it has continued to provide a critical resource for local communities, offering free digital books, compiling reading lists, holding essay competitions for teenagers and connecting with its youngest patrons over virtual story time, we reported.
More than 900 staffers in the city’s public hospitals have tested positive for COVID-19 as coronavirus has flooded everywhere from emergency rooms to intensive care units, THE CITY reported.