After calling subway cars in New York City “disgusting” earlier this week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday he’s asking the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for a plan to disinfect trains overnight, making them safer for essential workers to take to work in the morning.
Cuomo made the comments Tuesday after media outlets published photos and video of homeless individuals sleeping on subway cars, and being removed by police.
On Wednesday, he said the situation not only puts others at risk, it also endangers the lives of homeless people, who aren’t able to take the necessary precautions to prevent contracting COVID-19.
“The trains are filled with homeless people, and you’re not doing the homeless any favor,” Cuomo said. “To let homeless people stay on the trains in the middle of a global health pandemic with no masks, no protective equipment, you’re not helping the homeless.”
The MTA, Cuomo said, has been told to come up with a plan by Thursday to disinfect every car on the subway overnight. That way, if people are sleeping on the trains and potentially spreading the disease, workers know the next day that the subway’s been cleaned.
“Any essential worker who shows up and gets on a train should know that train was disinfected the night before,” Cuomo said. “We want them to show up. We don’t want them to stay home.”
Research from the MIT Economics Department, earlier this month, suggested that the mass transit system in New York City was a "major disseminator" of the disease.
New York also released preliminary results of a round of antibody tests for firefighters and police officers in New York City. The tests determine who’s already contracted the coronavirus, and recovered from the disease.
According to the results, 17.1% of the New York City Fire Department, including EMTs, tested positive for antibodies. That’s compared to 10.5% of officers with the New York City Police Department, according to the results. The average downstate is about 18%.
The state will be conducting an additional analysis of that data by race and gender, Cuomo said, and they’ll also be testing transit workers for antibodies.
While the antibodies don’t necessarily determine an immunity to the disease, according to the World Health Organization, Cuomo has said the results will help the state determine what share of the population has contracted the virus, which could show a more solid infection rate.
As of Tuesday, the latest data, a total of 299,691 people had tested positive for the disease in New York. The number of people hospitalized with the illness decreased to 12,159 Tuesday, a decrease of 487 from Monday’s numbers.
The number of people intubated also went down Tuesday, with 3,281 people requiring a ventilator. An additional 1,210 people were discharged from the hospital.
An additional 330 people died from COVID-19 in New York Tuesday, bringing the statewide total to 17,968.
