Brooklyn Coronavirus Briefing March 17: Social Distancing on St. Patrick’s Day
Updated throughout the day
Today is Saint Patrick’s Day! The parade may be postponed, and bars are out of the question, but you can still order delivery or takeout from your favorite Irish pub.
Latest numbers: Statewide there are 1,374 cases, up 432 since Monday. As of 2pm, 814 confirmed cases in NYC, 248 in Queens, 277 in Manhattan, 157 in Brooklyn, 96 in the Bronx, 37 in Staten Island. So far 7 people have died from coronavirus.
Peak of coronavirus expected in 45 days per @NYGovCuomo and NY will need 55k-110k hospital beds and 18.6k – 37.2k ICU beds. Currently, 53,000 beds and 3,000 ICU beds are available across the state, and are already 80% full. Today’s hospitalization rate of identified cases is 20%.
- New Yorkers should prepare for a shelter in place order within the next 48 hours. That decision has not been made yet, Mayor says, but residents should prepare. Governor says that decision is not up to the city to make.
- Rideshares and car pools banned by executive order. One passenger per vehicle (except families).
- Alternate side parking suspended starting tomorrow through March 24. Will be reassessed.
- De Blasio is considering stopping alternate side parking as more people are forced to stay home by the virus. “The question is really going to be when you consider all that we’re up against here versus the real honest health and cleanliness concerns,” said De Blasio on PIX11 today. “We have to balance those two and make a final decision. We’re going to be re-evaluating that today and we might make a change as early as today.”
- As non-essential businesses close across the city, unemployment continues to skyrocket. “The city is likely to lose as many as 500,000 jobs in businesses that cater to tourists and people moving about the city, said James Parrott, director of economic and fiscal policies at the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School,” wrote the New York Times.
- Cuomo waived the seven day waiting period to apply for unemployment causing the application website to crash repeatedly. The department of labor says they’re working on a solution, so if you need help and can get through, the application is here.
- The New York Times covers the closing of the Nitehawk Theater in Park Slope.
- Staff and advisers in De Blasio’s office threatened to quit if he didn’t take more aggressive action on Coronavirus.
- After reports of expected hospital bed and supply shortages, De Blasio announced he will be expanding hospital capacity in NYC by roughly 8,200. Six hundred of those beds will come from an unoccupied, recently-built nursing home in Brooklyn.
- Borough President Eric Adams has put forward his own list of options for hospital overflow sites. These include the recently decommissioned Brooklyn House of Detention in downtown Brooklyn, school buildings, the 13th Regiment Armory in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the Brooklyn Cruise Ship terminal in Red Hook and the Floyd Bennett Field in Marine Park.
- Schools have been closed since Monday, and will remain closed until at least April 20. Classes will resume online/remotely on Monday, March 23rd.
- NYC Speaker Corey Johnson: @NYCSchools will open ~100 regional enrichment centers across all 5 boroughs starting March 23 for thousands of children grades 3K-12 whose parents/guardians work essential jobs.
- Sheepshead Bay Synagogue is going completely “virtual” in response to COVID-19. On Tuesday, March 17, Kehilat Moshe of Sheepshead Bay, announced plans to conduct services on Facebook Live, Youtube, and via teleconference.“It is precisely during times of struggle when people yearn for a spiritual connection. Our congregation is prepared to meet the challenge” said Rabbi Shlomo Segal, the congregation’s spiritual leader. For more information please visit the Synagogue’s web page Kehilatmoshe.org and social media pages Facebook.com/KMSheepsheadbay Twitter.com/KMsheepsheadbay