Bars and clubs had been bustling the night before. People were still going out to bars, but with an unenforceable 50% capacity. New York was sitting in an odd limbo of business as usual-and about to face a wave of draconian rules to curb the outbreak. That night, an 82-year-old woman died from COVID-19, the first in the state. “We want people still to go on about their lives,” de Blasio told reporters March 13th. College students demanded campus closures. Essential workers fought for better sick leave benefits, which eventually happened on March 18th. The governor shut down Broadway theaters on March 12th. Patrick’s Day Parade was canceled March 11th, after several major cities around the country made the same move-coinciding with a bizarre Cuomo press briefing featuring his own very bad Irish accent. ![]() Restaurants started to close or reduce hours because of a lack of foot traffic. For nearly two weeks, de Blasio would urge New Yorkers to continue on with their regular lives unless they’re sick or vulnerable. National Guard members voiced anxieties over being deployed into this suburban hot zone, as disease detectives chased down his close contacts.Ĭases continued to rise, but mass lockdown restrictions would not take hold until late March. His synagogue was shut down, and Cuomo implemented a “containment zone” in New Rochelle starting March 12th. The second known case of COVID-19 in the state was detected in a man from Westchester, who was hospitalized in New York City. Food and Drug Administration to approve testing methods developed by private entities to increase capacity.įinally, on March 7th, Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a “state of emergency.” A day later, the state had more than 100 cases. Mayor de Blasio worked to increase testing capacity- from dozens to hundreds per day after he had called on the U.S. One train operator said he was discouraged from wearing a mask to avoid panicking subway riders, a rule the union instructed workers to ignore. Anthony Fauci, who cited the low number of supplies for frontline health care workers and the depletion of the national stockpile. ![]() Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and experts like Dr. We wondered about how our pets would fare.įew wore face masks, since it was against the recommendations of the U.S. ![]() During that first week, Mayor Bill de Blasio had urged New Yorkers to keep riding the subways, while many of us turned to just washing our hands more thoroughly.ĭemand for hand sanitizer surged, and so did the price gouging. In early March, COVID-19 was here, but life was business as usual. ![]() One year later, we take a look back at what happened in March 2020.Įarly Uncertainty, With Hand Sanitizer Suddenly In Short Supply The beginning of what would be a long-term, brutal economic fallout was felt almost immediately, and it mobilized New Yorkers eager to help each other carry on and to fill the gaps created by the federal government. The death toll disproportionately impacted Black and Latino city residents, who died from COVID-19 at around twice the rate of white residents. Today, more than 29,000 people have died from COVID-19 in New York City, still one of the hardest hit areas in the nation. We would eventually learn the germ had been circulating since late January, after unknowingly spilling over from Europe. During that first month alone, 2,600 New Yorkers died, as coronavirus quietly flourished throughout the city. The March 1st case set off a month with an exponential increase in infections that would soon lead to a relentless blare of sirens through the city and a wave of death that would later be called the city’s worst mass fatality event in modern history. The first known case of COVID-19 in New York State was reported one year ago today, when it was publicly announced that a Manhattan woman was found to be infected with the virus.
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