Cuomo slams ‘disgusting and disrespectful’ homeless situation on NYC subways

Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday slammed the ‘disgusting and disrespectful’ homeless situation on New York City subways and pledged to ‘do better’. 

The New York governor fumed about the issue during his daily briefing before an MTA official demanded Mayor Bill de Blasio ‘get out of his car and into the subways so he can see what is really going on’. 

Homeless people have begun congregating and living in the subway cars, which Cuomo said was putting both them and mass transit workers at grave risk.

‘Respect the essential workers. That is disgusting what is happening on those subway cars. It’s disrespectful to the essential workers who need to ride the subway system’, Cuomo said. 

Pledging to do better Cuomo added: ‘They deserve better and they will have better. We have to have a system that is clean and where the trains are disinfected. Homeless people on trains… it’s not even safe for them.

‘You have this whole outbreak and we let them stay on trains without protection in this epidemic? 

‘No. We have to do better than that and we will. We will learn from this and be better from this.’

A man sleeps on a New York subway train as the outbreak of the coronavirus continues in New York, on April 13. An MTA official demanded Mayor Bill de Blasio ‘get out of his car and into the subways so he can see what is really going on’

Homeless people have begun congregating and living in the subway cars, which Cuomo said was putting both them and mass transit workers at grave risk

Cuomo said public transport had continued amid the pandemic because that is ‘how the nurses are getting to work’. 

He said: ‘Nobody will be at the hospital. Nobody will be there to deliver the food. Nobody will be in the power plant to keep the lights on. Nobody will be at the telecommunications department. Public transportation is vital for them. 

‘Well, then make sure public transportation is safe and disinfected.’

MTA Chief Communications Officer Abbey Collins said the homeless situation was a ‘problem of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s own making’. 

She said:  ‘Right now, the City should step up and ensure NYPD and social service presence at every end-of-line station by the end of the week and commit to this effort long term. We have had to resort to hiring private security guards to serve as the eyes and ears of our system instead.

‘The Mayor should get out of his car and into the subways so he can see what is really going on and solve the problem of his own making.’ 

The MTA is effectively controlled by Cuomo but he did not offer any measures on how he will improve the situation on Tuesday. 

De Blasio has said 200 more shelter beds will be made available for homeless people and discussed closing certain stations ‘between midnight and 5 a.m’ and ‘deeply clean those stations’. 

He said: ‘Everyone has to get out of the stations, instead of what’s happened for years and years – that a homeless person just sits on the train, or maybe gets off the train temporarily, gets right back on it, goes then the whole way back.’ 

Mayor Bill de Blasio has said 200 more shelter beds will be made available for homeless people and discussed closing certain stations ‘between midnight and 5 a.m’ to ‘deeply clean’

Pictures show many homeless people are spending their nights on the ghost trains and platforms of the New York subway system, finding shelter in a place abandoned by almost everyone else in a shut-down city.

As of Friday 84 MTA workers have died of coronavirus with more than 3,000 confirmed cases. 

The transport authority’s chairman Patrick J. Foye last week once again blamed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, telling reporters he ‘regrets’ that the federal agency did not tell people to wear masks sooner. 

Foye said: ‘I regret that the CDC and the World Health Organization gave the advice that they did. I do regret that they gave that advice to the entire country. I think that everybody in the country regrets the failings of the CDC.’

The MTA followed initial CDC guidance which said its 71,000 workers did not have to wear face coverings. At the beginning of March workers were banned from wearing their own masks, Politico reports. 

As the death toll among MTA workers continued to rise, masks were eventually given to staff on March 27.  The CDC said people should wear a mask on April 8.  

Pictures show many homeless people are spending their nights on the ghost trains and platforms of the New York subway system, finding shelter in a place abandoned by almost everyone else in a shut-down city

As of Friday 84 MTA workers have died of coronavirus with more than 3,000 confirmed cases

Cuomo said public transport had continued amid the pandemic because that is ‘how the nurses are getting to work’

Cuomo also revealed his 12-step plan to reopening state on Tuesday. 

It includes keeping hospital capacity beneath 70 percent and seeing solid two-week declines in coronavirus cases in the areas he will restart. 

But the governor warned it would take a ‘miracle’ for New York City to reach the requirements in the next few weeks.

Cuomo’s lockdown officially ends on May 15 but he said on Monday he would extend it for some regions of the state where the data suggests there is still a problem. 

In the United States more than 58,000 people have died from COVID-19, the most of any country. New York accounts for nearly half of those deaths.

The three-day rolling average of the number of people newly hospitalized for COVID-19 fell to 953 in New York on Monday, Cuomo said, adding that intubations and total hospitalizations also fell.

It was the first time new hospitalizations dropped below the 1,000 level since March 24. An additional 335 New Yorkers died on Monday, about 100 fewer than the level three days ago. 

The MTA is effectively controlled by Cuomo but he did not offer any measures on how he will improve the situation on Tuesday

MTA Chief Communications Officer Abbey Collins said the homeless situation was a ‘problem of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s own making’

Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday slammed the ‘disgusting and disrespectful’ homeless situation on New York City subways and pledged to ‘do better’

Cuomo said New York would also follow guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requiring 14 days of declining hospitalizations before reopening, although he did not specify which regions of the state have cleared that threshold.

As a whole, hospitalizations in New York have fallen for 15 straight days, including a 173 decline on Monday.

Cuomo said there were regions that were in similar situations to states that have already relaxed restrictions.

‘Some of the places upstate have a problem that is comparable to states in the Midwest or the West,’ he said.