Bill de Blasio says testing sites will open in New York City’s hard-hit minority communities

African American and Hispanic residents of New York City are twice as likely to die from coronavirus as whites, prompting Mayor Bill de Blasio to urge the federal government to help him provide more testing kits for under-served communities.

‘We cannot accept this inequality,’ the mayor said on Sunday.

‘We have to attack it with every tool we have.’

During a briefing at City Hall on Sunday, de Blasio announced that the city plans to expand testing to predominantly minority communities including East New York, Brooklyn; Morrisania in the Bronx; Harlem; Jamaica, Queens, and Clifton, Staten Island.

The mayor said that the sites will be operating under the auspices of NYC Health + Hospitals, the public benefit corporation that manages the city’s public hospitals and clinics.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio held a briefing on Easter Sunday from City Hall in Lower Manhattan, where he called on the federal government to send more test kits

The mayor said he would expand testing in hard-hit areas as city agencies report preliminary data showing that African Americans and Latinos have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. A woman is seen above being loaded into an ambulance in Harlem on Wednesday

De Blasio said the city will implement a system that will prioritize those who have underlying health conditions and are at greater risk of falling seriously ill.

‘This will be targeted testing in communities with the greatest need,’ the mayor said on Sunday.

De Blasio said he would ask the Trump administration to provide the city with an additional 110,000 individualized test kits ‘to allow us to get started with this community effort.’

‘The federal government really needs to step up,’ the mayor said. ‘They have not been doing what we all need, and this is true all over the country.

‘We have not gotten the help that we needed, and this is their chance to get it right.’

The city on Wednesday released preliminary data showing that coronavirus was killing blacks and Latinos at twice the rate as whites.

Latinos make up 34 per cent of the coronavirus fatalities in New York City – even though they comprise 29 per cent of the city’s population.

Blacks, who make up just 22 per cent of New York City’s population, represent 28 per cent of coronavirus deaths in the five boroughs.

Around the same percentage of whites have also died of COVID-19, though they make up a larger chunk of the city’s population.

According to the city’s Department of Health, Hispanics infected with coronavirus have been dying at a rate of 22 people per 100,000.

African-Americans diagnosed with COVID-19 have been dying at a rate of 20 per 100,000 residents.

White residents of New York City, meanwhile, have been dying at a rate of 10 per 100,000.

The data shows that New Yorkers of Asian backgrounds have been dying at the lowest rate – 8 per 100,000.

The mayor on Sunday said that the figures debunk the widespread belief that coronavirus is an equal opportunity killer.

‘This virus is not the great equalizer,’ de Blasio said on Sunday.

‘It does not have the same impact everywhere.’

Mayor doubles down on his decision to shutter NYC schools for the rest of the year before Gov Cuomo hits back and hints they could open by June

The mayor on Sunday doubled down on his decision to shutter NYC schools for the rest of the year a day after locking horns with Governor Andrew Cuomo. 

The mayor said it was a decision he ‘had to make’, adding: ‘The bottom line here is about health and safety.’ 

Asked who had the final decision on closures de Blasio added: ‘This is not about legal jurisdictions, but a moral one.’

The mayor said in a news briefing Saturday that public school sites in the city’s 1.1 million-student school district would shutter for the rest of the academic year to curb the spread of the coronavirus. 

Soon afterward, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at his own briefing that the decision was his to make. ‘It is my legal authority in this situation, yes,’ Cuomo said. 

He added Sunday that school closings would have to be coordinated with districts surrounding the city, telling reporters: ‘I am not prepared to say what we will be doing in June. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, pictured Saturday, said at his own briefing that the decision was his to make. ‘It is my legal authority in this situation, yes,’ Cuomo said

‘No one knows what will be doing in June. Whatever plan we come up with will be driven by data and science.’ 

De Blasio said Sunday:  ‘When it comes to a decision like this our job is to protect the children, the families, the educators of NYC.’

He said it is ‘abundantly clear’ that in order to do these things ‘we have to keep the schools closed for the remainder of the school year’. 

Just minutes later in his own press conference Cuomo said: ‘All the schools are closed and they will remain closed until it is safe. It has to work in a coordinated plan with businesses. 

Responding to calls to close the schools for the rest of the academic year Cuomo added: ‘You’re effectively saying businesses are closed. You cant restart economy without reopening schools.

‘June is a long way from now. We go day to day and I wouldn’t assume anything. Is anyone prepared to say businesses wont be open until June. I don’t think anybody can make an informed decision like that now.’  

As of Sunday morning there were 9,385 deaths from COVID-19 across the state of New York with 6,387 of those in the nation’s epicenter, New York City. 

The mayor said his decision was made Friday evening and it was ‘imperative to announce as soon as it was made to allow everything to be planned accordingly’. 

He said state legislators were told Saturday morning.  

Cuomo said later that day – following de Blasio’s press conference – school closings would have to be coordinated with districts surrounding the city.

‘So I understand the mayor’s position, which is he wants to close them until June, and we may do that, but we’re going to do it in a coordinated sense with the other localities,’ Cuomo said. 

‘It makes no sense for one locality to take an action that’s not coordinated with the others.’

When a reporter suggested that the mixed messages would confuse parents, Cuomo said, ‘We just clarified it. It’s not going to be decided in the next few days because we don’t know.’

But the back and forth continued Sunday with De Blasio telling reporters: ‘What is the right thing to do for the kids, families, educators? The right thing to do is to keep the schools closed. 

‘We are dealing with something different to anywhere else. He [Cuomo] has to think about the whole state. My responsibilty is to the children, families, educators of this city. That’s my singular focus.’  

The dispute between Cuomo and de Blasio was the latest bout in a long-running grudge match between the two elected officials, who have failed to maintain a united front in the face of a pandemic.

When de Blasio said last month that city residents should prepare for a ‘shelter-in-place’ order, Cuomo countered that the city didn’t have the power to make such a declaration.

Days later, Cuomo announced a ‘New York state on pause’ order directing nonessential businesses to close and telling people to stay 6 feet away from others when in public. The order sounded much like shelter-in-place, a term de Blasio has continued to use.  

De Blasio spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein alluded to the earlier dispute on Twitter, saying Cuomo’s reaction to de Blasio’s school announcement was ‘reminiscent of how he reacted when the Mayor called for a shelter in place. We were right then and we’re right now.’ 

De Blasio added: ‘We have agreed on the vast majority of things. There may times when people have different perspectives.’ 

Speaking Sunday, the Democrat confirmed the city would have ‘enough ventilators to get through this coming week based on what we know now’.

Figures show the rate of intubations has slowed – there are now an average of 70 more intubations daily down from between 200 and 300. 

But de Blasio admitted PPE is not up to ‘peacetime’ standards, instead it is at ‘crisis’ standards, he said. 

Asked about undocumented workers in the city de Blasio said: ‘We are going to make sure always people are protected regardless of documentation status.’

He also announced plans to expand testing in targeted communities. including East New York in Brooklyn and Harlem in Manhattan after date showed the black community has been disproportionately affected by the virus. 

De Blasio said as of Monday all city workers must wear face coverings and announced the hiring of 500 non clinical staff for roles involving patient transport, clerical staff and cleaning jobs. 

School buildings in New York City, the U.S. epicenter of the pandemic, have been closed since March 16. 

All school buildings in the state have been closed since March 18 following a Cuomo executive order.

The school closings were initially announced for a few weeks back before the virus’s full impact was known. New York’s school year lasts through late June.

A massive effort to move instruction online has met mixed success in the city, where many low-income students lack Wi-Fi and devices for connecting to their virtual classrooms.

De Blasio said tens of thousands of tablets and laptops have been loaned to students who needed them and the remaining students who lack devices for online learning will get them by the end of April.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk