In New York City, 63 Department of Education employees have died from the coronavirus as of Friday, the department says.
That includes 25 teachers, two administrators, one guidance counselor and two food service staffers.
New York City schools will be closed for the rest of this school year, with students learning remotely instead. Free meals will remain available for students who need them.
– Cuomo calls for hazard pay for front-line workers
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is calling for hazard pay for front-line, essential public workers, proposing a 50% bonus.
Cuomo stressed that about 40% of the front-line workers are people of color and one-third are from low-income households.
“The economy did not close down. It closed down for those people who frankly have the luxury of staying at home,” Cuomo said. “All of those essential workers, who have had to get up every morning to put food on the shelves, and go to the hospitals to provide health care under extraordinary circumstances … those people worked. They exposed themselves to the virus.”
“After all of that, we see the infection rate among African Americans and brown Americans higher proportionately than other groups. Why? Because they were out there exposing themselves,” Cuomo said.
In New York state, 478 lives were lost on Sunday. Twenty-three of those deaths were in nursing homes, Cuomo said.
“We are going through hell,” Cuomo tweeted. “When this is all over, I want people to say, we went through hell but we learned lessons and we built a better society because of it.”
