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New York City continues coronavirus related preparations for phase one of reopening which is still on track for Monday. Whether protesting or just out and about, Mayor Bill de Blasio wants folk off the streets.  

“I want people to stay home to the maximum extent possible. I want people to practice social distancing very very consistently.”

He says the MTA is working hard in getting the subway and buses as safe as possible.

A curfew going from eight pm to five am is being extended in New York City through Sunday following yet another night of mayhem.  A clearly agitated Mayor Bill de Blasio says he’s tired of people criticizing New York City and its police officers.

“To hell with all of them. I don’t care if they are left or right or center.  I am sick of people attacking the city of New York.”

As for the day after day of violence and looting

Mayor Bill de Blasio says he’s confident the NYPD will be able to track protesters responsible for some of the violence over the weekend and looting stores in Lower Manhattan

“There are very small number of people doing this violence. Very Small.  We have to get them. We have to stop them.

Meanwhile de Blasio is praising the vast majority of police officers.

“Very tough circumstances these last few days.  They have shown a lot restraint.”

However, he calls some officer actions inappropriate.

As protests erupted across the country this weekend, thousands descended on the city of Newark to express their outrage over the murder of an unarmed black man at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. Among them was the city’s own Mayor, Ras Baraka.

New York City will be helping employees protect their workers from coronavirus with the city still on pace to start reopening within the next couple weeks.  Businesses must supply face coverings to their employees once they reopen and the city will give them to companies for free.  Mayor de Blasio is setting up a worker helpline for employees to send in coronavirus related workplace protection complaints.

It’s tough enough being an essential worker these days without having to worry about how you’re going to pay for additional schooling.  Essex County College is trying to help.

ECC will cover tuition and fees for a minimum of 6 credits for essential workers for the Summer 2020 term. All they have to do is provide a letter from their employer confirming that they are indeed essential. 

It’s estimated upwards of four hundred thousand people will be back at work with phase one of reopening still on track to start in New York City in the first two weeks of June. Mayor Bill de Blasio says companies will be required to do healthcare screenings once they open.

“It might be a temperature check in the morning as people come to their place of work.  It might be a questionnaire.”

New York City is providing free services to those in isolation with coronavirus.  In an effort to help people and try and make sure folks who test positive stay in quarantine for two weeks, the city has brought on what Mayor Bill de Blasio calls resource navigators. They will make daily phone calls to people and get them what they need for free.

“Medical check ins.  It means meals. It means laundry. It means making sure you get any medicines delivered that you need.  It means mental health support.”

New York City continues to increase coronavirus testing and is preparing for its test and trace program.  Mayor Bill de Blasio says more testing sites are coming online with the hopes the city will be able to do 50-thousand tests a day by August.

“Testing is what gives us the ability to know what’s going on person by person and in the whole city. And now we’re are going to have something on a vast scale we didn’t have before which is tracing.”

As states across the nation open up their economies, we are just beginning to get a sense of the toll on the families of essential workers, like nurses and firefighters, who either died in the pandemic or maybe permanently disabled from their bout with COVID19.

It should come as no surprise that the members of Congress from our region that led the charge for the passage of the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund are teaming up to introduce the Pandemic Heroes Compensation Act.

There are 90 accredited schools around the world that train guide dogs for the blind. Many of them have been closed by the coronavirus pandemic. The oldest such school in the U.S. is the Seeing Eye located in Morris Township, New Jersey.

WBGO's Jon Kalish reports on how the the Seeing Eye is coping with the pandemic.

Restaurants and restaurant owners and employees across New Jersey have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with many being forced to lay off employees and shut their doors, only to survive on pick up and delivery orders since the shut down began back in March, but some have managed to adapt and have even answered the call to feed those in need and those on the frontline.

 New York City beaches will be open for Memorial Day weekend.   Mayor de Blasio is clearing up a bit of confusion when he said a few days ago beaches will remain closed.  He now is inviting folks to come to the beaches but says there’s no swimming.   

“You can walk, you can sit down, you can bring a chair.  You can bring a blanket. But you have to follow the same concepts.  Socially distance from people who are not a part of your own household.”