The MTA will soon cease overnight subway service, an unprecedented disruption that will allow crews to disinfect trains more frequently to help slow the spread of coronavirus.
In a joint press conference on Thursday, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio said that subways will not run between the hours of 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. for the duration of the pandemic. The indefinite shutdown will begin the morning of May 6th.
Subway ridership has plummeted by 92 percent since the COVID-19 crisis began, and only 10,000 people were using the system during the overnight window, officials said. The MTA will provide buses, for-hire vehicles and "dollar vans" for essential workers traveling at night.
The bombshell announcement follows Cuomo's demand on Wednesday that the MTA begin disinfecting trains on a nightly basis. The governor singled out the number of homeless New Yorkers seeking shelter in the transit system, describing their presence "disgusting and disrespectful."
De Blasio said the curtailed hours would allow for the city to better address that "unacceptable reality." Both state police and NYPD officers will provide a "robust and sustainable" presence during the overnight shutdown, the governor said.
Metro North and the Long Island Railroad trains will also be disinfected regularly, but without service interruptions.
Transit advocates cautioned that the subway shutdown should be a short-term intervention, and must be paired with increased bus service for frontline workers.
Another 3.8 million Americans lose jobs as US unemployment continues to grow
Pace of job losses appears to be slowing but figures increase and many people yet to receive benefits as backlog hits US system
Another 3.8 million people lost their jobs in the US last week as the coronavirus pandemic continued to batter the economy. The pace of layoffs appears to be slowing, but in just six weeks an unprecedented 30 million Americans have now sought unemployment benefits and the numbers are still growing.
The latest figures from the labor department released on Thursday showed a fourth consecutive week of declining claims. While the trend is encouraging, the rate of losses means US unemployment is still on course to reach levels unseen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The figures are also still undercounting the number of people out of work. Some states are still dealing with backlogs of claims after their systems were overwhelmed by the massive volume of applications.
Florida has become a notable black spot. As of Tuesday the state had received more than 1.9 million claims and processed just over 664,000, one of the slowest rates in the nation.
Intelligence report concludes Covid-19 was not 'manmade or genetically modified'
The office of the director of national intelligence said the intelligence community does not believe coronavirus was manmade. The new statement comes amid reports that Trump has asked intelligence officials to investigate whether the virus originated from a Chinese government laboratory. Trump implied that he’d seen evidence proving the unproven theory that the coronavirus originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. He also repeated claims that China favored Joe Biden over him in the election,
Most epidemiologists believe that a natural transmission of the novel coronavirus from animal to human remains the most likely explanation for the pandemic’s origin.
Trump, under fire about coronavirus response, looks to shift blame to China
The Trump administration is reportedly pressuring the US intelligence community to seek out evidence supporting an unsubstantiated theory that the coronavirus pandemic has its origins in a Chinese government lab in Wuhan. [NY Times]
Simultaneously, the administration is said to be looking for ways to punish China for its response to the initial coronavirus outbreak. Administration officials have floated several strategies, including clearing the way for Covid-19 victims to sue the country and unilaterally canceling part of the US debt to China. [Washington Post]
Both actions are part of a broader strategy by the GOP: A memo obtained last week by Politico instructed Republican Senate candidates to shift their focus to attacking China rather than defending President Trump’s response to the pandemic. [Politico]
Although Trump has taken an increasingly hostile stance toward China in recent days, a month ago, the president complimented the country’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Donald J. Trump(@realDonaldTrump)
Just finished a very good conversation with President Xi of China. Discussed in great detail the CoronaVirus that is ravaging large parts of our Planet. China has been through much & has developed a strong understanding of the Virus. We are working closely together. Much respect!
March 27, 2020
Armed protestors demonstrated against the extension of shelter in place orders in Michigan.
The demonstrators, some of whom were carrying assault rifles, compared the state’s Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer to Hitler.
Gov. Whitmer of Michigan, a prime political target in partisan clashes over stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus outbreak, signed three executive orders on Thursday to reinstate a state of emergency during the coronavirus pandemic.
The moves, which put into place a new state of emergency through May 28, were in response to the Republican-led State Legislature’s refusal to extend the original emergency declaration on the day it was set to expire.
Republican lawmakers have tried to strip the governor’s power to declare a state of emergency, which underpins the stay-at-home order. Michigan has had more Covid-19 deaths than every state except New York and New Jersey. “By refusing to extend the emergency and disaster declaration, Republican lawmakers are putting their heads in the sand and putting more lives and livelihoods at risk,” Ms. Whitmer, a Democrat, said in a statement. “I’m not going to let that happen.”
A tightly packed crowd of protesters, some carrying rifles, attempted to enter the floor of the legislative chamber, and were held back by a line of state police and capitol staff, according to video footage posted by local journalists. “Let us in! Let us in!” the protesters chanted, as they stood shoulder-to-shoulder inside the statehouse. Few of them were wearing face masks.
FBI notes on Michael Flynn unlikely to convince judge he was entrapped, legal experts say
The notes, taken by a former senior FBI official, fuel expectations of a pardon for President Trump's former national security adviser.
New Jersey is reporting more new daily deaths than any other state.
New Jersey reported 460 new virus-related deaths on Thursday, more than any other state in the nation. The state is now reporting more new deaths than neighboring New York, which saw 306 new deaths on Thursday, less than half of what it was reporting each day when the outbreak peaked there this month.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California on Thursday shut down the beaches in Orange County, rolling back earlier attempts at giving people there a chance to stroll along the shore while staying a safe distance from one another. But Alabama moved to reopen its beaches, and Texas will do the same in parts of the state on Friday, even as health experts warn that doing so could produce a surge in new virus cases.
“This disease isn’t going away,” Mr. Newsom warned, noting that the pandemic had claimed at least 95 lives in California in the previous 24 hours.