FOR PANDEMIC’S FALLEN HEROES
Cuo unveils frontline-worker death benefits
The families of New York’s public workers who gave their lives fighting the coronavirus will receive death benefits from the state and local governments, Gov. Cuomo announced on Monday.
“I feel a grave responsibility to our frontline workers, our essential workers who understood the dangers of this COVID virus but went to work anyway because we needed them to,” the governor said in a Memorial Day press briefing at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on Manhattan’s West Side.
“Today, we’re saying we honor that service, and we’re going to make sure that every government in the state of New York provides death benefits to those public heroes who died from COVID-19 during this emergency.”
The office of Mayor de Blasio, who last week joined a growing chorus of calls for the benefits, was quick to take credit for the idea.
“Thank you @NYGovCuomo for endorsing our plan to provide line of duty benefits to city workers lost to COVID-19,” City Hall press secretary Freddi Goldstein tweeted within minutes of Cuomo’s announcement.
“Every day, but particularly on Memorial Day, it’s so important to stop and remember those we’ve lost, and do all we can to support the families they left behind.”
The death benefits, for which Cuomo has long signaled support, would be paid out of state and local pension funds and go to the families of publicly employed responders including health-care workers, cops and firefighters — “the people who showed up,” the governor said.
“I have such respect and esteem for what they did,” Cuomo said. “And I want to make sure that we repay that not just by saying thank you and running nice television commercials. Show the respect.”
Other details of the initiative, including the projected cost and when benefits would first be disbursed, weren’t announced.
Cuomo also called on Washington to go one step further for the heroes.
“The federal government should dedicate federal funds and pay hazard pay to those workers who showed up,” Cuomo said.
“It’s a way of saying, ‘Thank you, we understand what you did, we appreciate what you did,’ ” the governor continued.
“And it’s a way of showing Americans that when there is a next time — and there is a next time — that we truly appreciate those people who show up and do their duty.”
Cuomo announced the move during a solemn briefing that began with a Memorial Day tribute that included his tossing a memorial wreath into the Hudson River, the playing of taps and a moment of silence.
As America mourned its fallen military heroes, another 96 people in the state died of the coronavirus in the 24-hour period ending at midnight Monday, raising the state’s overall confirmed death toll to 23,488.
That staggering figure does not include thousands of presumed coronavirus deaths, in which the deceased were never officially tested for the disease but displayed symptoms.
The number of daily fatalities dipped back into double digits after 109 deaths were tallied in the 24-hour period prior.
Still, the latest daily total marks a slight jump from the 84 deaths reported on Friday, the lowest point in nearly two months.
“Ninety-six is still painfully high,” Cuomo said. “But only in the relative absurdity of our situation is that relatively good news. We remember those 96 families today.”