Briefing 4/30: Dead Bodies In U-Haul Trucks, Man Stealing Stimulus Checks & More

Good morning! It’s the last day of April. We hope next month will bring you happiness and peace. Here are some new numbers as of 1 p.m. yesterday:

• There were 2,152 new confirmed positive coronavirus cases in NYC, compared to the 1,613 new cases from Tuesday, bringing the total to 159,865 confirmed positive coronavirus cases in the City. In Brooklyn, there were 636 new confirmed positive cases, compared to the 417 new cases from Tuesday, bringing the total to 42,380 confirmed positive cases in the borough.
• There were 738 new hospitalizations in NYC yesterday, compared to the 528 new hospitalizations from Tuesday, bringing the total to 41,316 hospitalizations in the City.
• There were 467 new confirmed coronavirus-related deaths in NYC, compared to the 112 new deaths from Tuesday, bringing the total to 12,287 deaths in the City, with 5,302 probable deaths. In Brooklyn, the number of deaths is now 3,678.
• Dan Herron, the chief of bariatric surgery at Mount Sinai in Manhattan, has been doing everything from performing blood draws to changing soiled bedsheets, New York Magazine reported. “There were times you would introduce yourself and ask someone where the lab is, and often the response you’d get is, Oh, I just showed up today from Minnesota.’ The fact that people were coming from halfway across the country to help out was really something that you would only see in a wartime situation. You very much had the sense of a battleground with people from all different areas, geography, and levels of experience being brought together to fight the same battle.”
• The Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Home at 2057A Utica Ave left dead bodies sitting in U-Haul trucks. “Law enforcement agents said the bodies have been in the rental trucks for more than a week and have been rotting and causing a strong odor. Investigators also believe most of the dead bodies are the result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” AMNY reported.
• All 16,000 city school bus workers will be furloughed today after officials declined to renew contracts for school bus companies, the Daily News reported.
• 1 to 2 inches of rainfall is expected tonight through Friday morning with 3 inches possible along some regions. Areas within the Flood Watch have the potential to bring locally higher amounts raising the concern for flooding.
• A 31-year-old man is accused of stealing at least nine stimulus checks, along with credit cards and other checks, out of the mailboxes of homes and apartment buildings in Sunset Park, NBC New York reported.
• Longtime community activist and MTA train conductor Benjamin Schaeffer, who once evacuated a train after someone poured gasoline on the floor of one of the cars, died from the coronavirus on Tuesday, we reported.
• The Brooklyn Public Library is asking residents to contribute to its local oral history archive, Our Streets, Our Stories, by sharing their experiences about living through the COVID-19 pandemic, we reported.
• Immigrant Workers and the nonprofits that serve them are in overdrive. “Before‌ ‌the‌ ‌pandemic,‌ ‌we‌ ‌knew‌ ‌that‌ ‌immigrant‌ ‌workers‌ ‌were‌ ‌extremely‌ ‌vulnerable.‌ ‌Now,‌ ‌as‌ ‌the‌ ‌pandemic‌ ‌forces‌ ‌our‌ ‌government‌ ‌to‌ ‌see‌ ‌the‌ ‌essential‌ ‌nature‌ ‌of‌ ‌their‌ ‌labor,‌ ‌words‌ ‌are‌ ‌not‌ ‌enough,” Council Member Carlos Menchaca said.