A New York ER doctor and Iraq War veteran was left aghast over the weekend as thousands of citizens sunbathed in parks despite the coronavirus pandemic ravaging hospitals.
Cleavon Gilman, who works at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Washington Heights, tweeted his horror with a video of a packed Sheep Meadow in Central Park on Saturday.
He wrote: ‘Sixteen-thousand New Yorkers dead in eight weeks! This is a SLAP in the face to healthcare providers nationwide risking their lives and dying on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m in Central Park right now and it’s business as usual.’
While the masses bathed in 70 degree sunshine, another 280 deaths were reported statewide on Sunday. New York now has more than 316,000 confirmed cases and 19,189 deaths, and the city accounts for more than 13,000 confirmed deaths (with the probable figure at 18,000).
New Yorkers sunbathing beside the Hudson River on Sunday afternoon despite a sing nearby urging citizens to practice social distancing
Thousands of New Yorkers flocked to city parks this weekend as warmer weather tempted them out of quarantine and forced the city to dispatch 1,000 officers to streets to enforce social distancing guidelines and a ban on large public congregations (Pictured: Central Park’s Sheep Meadow on Saturday afternoon)
More than 700 New Yorkers were dying daily at the peak of the outbreak last month. The total death toll does not include 5,200 additional victims in New York City whose deaths were blamed on the virus on death certificates, but whose infections haven’t been confirmed by a lab test.
NYPD dispatched more than 1,000 officers to enforce social distancing over the weekend as warmer weather tempted citizens.
Under the instructions of Mayor Bill de Blasio, NYPD officers set out on foot, bicycles and in cars to break up crowds and remind those enjoying the weather of public health restrictions requiring they keep 6 feet away from others.
Two of the city’s largest public gardens, Central Park and Prospect Park, were filled with sunbathers basking in the sunshine, many of them in groups.
Mayor de Blasio said in parks alone on Friday, officers were forced to issue 43 summonses to those ignoring social distancing protocol. New Yorkers can be fined up to $1000 for violating the orders.
An additional eight summonses were issued to lockdown rebels outside of the parks, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said, noting the ‘majority’ of the 51 issued in total were for a failure to maintain a social distance.
Three arrests were made citywide, Shea said, though the circumstances of each was not disclosed. The NYPD has made 60 arrests and issued 343 summonses related to social distancing since shelter-in-place instructions were implemented on March 16.
Despite the hefty number of summonses, de Blasio said the ‘vast majority of New Yorkers are following the rules.’
Shea added: ‘I would just reiterate that we had tens of thousands of interactions with people all across the city yesterday, most of them without having to issue any type of enforcement activity, whether it’s a summons or arrest.
Under the instructions of Mayor Bill de Blasio, NYPD officers set out on foot, bicycles and in cars to break up crowds and remind those enjoying the weather of public health restrictions requiring they keep 6 feet away from others
Two of the city’s largest public gardens, Central Park and Prospect Park (above), were filled with sunbathers basking in the 70 degree sunshine, many of them in groups
Mayor de Blasio said in parks alone on Friday, officers were forced to issue 43 summonses to those ignoring social distancing protocol. New Yorkers can be fined up to $1000 for violating the orders
‘New Yorkers are exhibiting extreme patience for the last few months. We’re going to ask for a little more of it.’
In Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, dwellers were issued free protective masks and bandannas as they walked through the gates.
The NYC Parks Department is pledging to distribute 100,000 free cloth masks at parks city-wide in the weeks ahead, in a bid to aide the flattening of New York’s coronavirus curve, as it continues to be the US epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said he appreciated residents were bored but that they should not take ‘false comfort’ from falling COVID-19 cases or from seeing other states reopen.
He insisted that the outbreak – which has killed almost 20,000 people statewide – was far from over.
‘How people cannot wear masks is disrespectful. It’s disrespectful to the nurses, the doctors, the people who have been frontline workers, the transit workers.
‘You wear the mask not for yourself – you wear the mask for me,’ he added.
Cuomo also said that new cases and intubations continue to fall, though remarked the numbers are still ‘disturbingly high’.
Most people are heeding officers’ warnings to keep their distance in parks and around essential businesses like grocery stores, Shea said.
But a stark example of non-compliance came Thursday when officers interrupted a crowded funeral procession in Brooklyn’s Borough Park neighborhood. Video posted to social media showed officers in protective masks chasing a minivan and shouting at dozens of people marching behind the van to get out of the street and onto the sidewalk.
An additional eight summonses were issued to lockdown rebels outside of the parks, NYPD Commisioner Dermot Shea said, noting the ‘majority’ of the 51 issued in total were for a failure to maintain a social distance
Despite the hefty number of summonses, de Blasio said the ‘vast majority of New Yorkers are following the rules’
On April 18, officers passed out summonses and made arrests at a Bronx parking lot and garage where they found a makeshift nightclub featuring a pool table and bar offering hard liquor and Corona beer, and at a closed Brooklyn barbershop where more than 50 people gathered for a party featuring loud music and gambling.
Two days later officers broke up a ‘4/20’ marijuana holiday celebration staged in the vacant third floor of a building in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. Dozens of people, some drawn by social media hype about the party, were given summonses for trespassing.
Though New York continues to be the hardest-hit state in the US, it is starting to see a slowdown in hospital visits and consecutive days of the daily death rate from the virus decreasing.
Mount Sinai Hospital Health System said it’s shutting down the small field hospital it erected in Central Park through a partnership with a charity run by Christian evangelical preacher Franklin Graham.
Though New York continues to be the hardest-hit state in the US, it is starting to see a slowdown in hospital visits and consecutive lowerings of the daily death rate from the virus
As of Sunday afternoon, New York had 316,415 confirmed cases of coronavirus state-wide and 19,189 recorded deaths, an increase of 280 from the day previous. More than 700 New Yorkers were dying daily at the peak of the outbreak last Month
Only eight patients remained at the makeshift hospital as of Saturday.
It plans to stop admitting new patients to the field hospital as of Monday. Officials said it would take about two weeks to treat these last patients and then decontaminate and remove the tents.
‘While this crisis is far from over, this marks a significant turning point in the coronavirus outbreak in New York that gives us assurance that we are returning towards normalcy’ the system said in a statement to The Associated Press. ‘We are grateful to have fought the coronavirus together alongside the courageous people of New York City.’
Mount Sinai Health System partnered with the Graham’s charity Samaritan’s Purse to open the field hospital, treating 315 people infected with the coronavirus since April 1.