City pharmacists seek protection from COVID-19
BY ALEJANDRA O'CONNELLDOMENECH
The fl ood of phone calls from
panicked New Yorkers to Drug
Mart, a small independent pharmacy
in the Upper East Side, hasn’t
let up since the coronavirus pandemic
began forcing all of the state’s non-essential
workforce to work from home,
according to pharmacist Ilana Amivo.
People call the pharmacy with general
questions about the virus, how it
spreads, what precautions need to be
taken, where to get hand sanitizer,
how to get a COVID-19 test, worries
over medication shortages, if they are
closing and how to get life-sustaining
drugs like insulin or blood pressure
pills without setting foot inside an
actual store.
“We try to give them daily reassurance
that, yes, we’ll be here no matter
what,” said Amivo during a phone
interview, the sharp sound of ringing
phones serving as background noise.
Like other pharmacies across the
city and country, Drug Mart has adopted
social distancing practices at
work, stopped charging for curbside
deliveries and even expanded their
delivery mileage to enable more New
Yorkers to stay home.
During one of the 80 daily deliveries,
the drug store’s now seven-person
staff makes, given the nation’s
unpredictable economic state the
store let go of five employees, Amivo
transported HIV medication to a patient
in The Village so he wouldn’t
have to step outside.
Pharmacists, according to Amivo
PHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES
and President of the Pharmacists Society
of the State of New York Steve
Moore, are happy to provide more relief
to hospitals like providing more
vaccinations and address drug shortages
by compounding commercially
available prescriptions.
Two things that could possibly be
done if more limits are placed on
prescription drug middlemen, the
pair said.
But pharmacists, like other healthcare
workers, worry about the lack
of protective gear available to them.
In a group chat with 300 other independent
pharmacists, Amivo said,
people are constantly pinging one
another asking where they can get
gloves, face masks, and other protective
gear.
They want to take extra precautions
while out and about and also
in stores.
“They come in coughing, talking
to you, signing things and we don’t
know what they have,” said Amivo.
A mother of four, she worries about
accidentally picking up the virus at
work and passing to her children who
could possibly spread it to others.
More protective gear for pharmacists
would help prevent the spread
of the novel coronavirus patients
in hospitals. In order to maintain
certain drug sterility, like IVP
drips, pharmacy workers need N-95
masks.
“We are also healthcare providers
and we have kind of become forgotten,”
said Amivo.
MTA cuts service as ridership plunges in pandemic
BY MARK HALLUM
It’s no longer service as usual with
MTA agencies as they announced
on March 24 major shifts in schedules
to accommodate essential service
workers while cutting costs after ridership
tanked due to COVID-19 containment
measures.
MTA offi cials, which has already had
to make drastic changes in the crisis,
said Tuesday that something had to give
in order to keep the MTA from losing
up to $4 billion over the course of the
next year. They’ve formally requested
that amount of federal funding to help
close the fi nancial gap that coronavirus
measures left in their budget.
The reduced schedule not only responds
to 87% drop in subway ridership
and a 94% dip on Metro-North
Railroad and comes following the C
train being taken out of service due to
a conductor notifying the MTA he had
tested positive for coronavirus, among
other obstacles as the epidemic continues.
“We are in the midst of the largest
liquidity crisis ever as a result of a sudden
drop in ridership as more people
stay home,” MTA Chair Pat Foye said.
“Extending our line of credit is not a
long-term solution, and gutting our
hard-fought capital plan is a nonstarter.
MTA Chair Pat Foye at a Feb. 18 Press conference in the Fulton Street
subway station.
We will not allow this pandemic to slow
our efforts to bring our system into the
21st century. This is a national problem
that requires a national solution.”
Subways are set to go to schedule
typical of Saturdays on March 25 while
buses will follow suit on March 26.
Trains such as the B, W, and Z will no
longer run Monday through Friday.
PHOTO BY MARK HALLUM
On the Metro-North and Long Island
Rail Road, morning and evening
peak hours will be preserved.
However, the Saturday schedule
will equate to about a 30% decrease
in service on subways and buses —
which Foye and other MTA offi cials are
confi dent will not result in crowding
that could go against social distancing
guidelines.
According to Foye, the extent of the
crisis deserves a hearing at the congressional
level and regional governments
cannot be held to blame for the obvious
fi nancial misfortunes that have befallen
state and local governments and their
agencies.
As announced last week, the MTA
has said it would need a $4 billion
boost from the federal government if it
is to bounce back from the crisis and
help all New Yorkers return to work.
“There will be savings, that’s not
what is driving this. Clearly, and I don’t
have a number at my fi ngertips, I will
say this that in terms of the billions and
billions of defi cit that we face because
of the ridership decline and the decline
in subsidies, those numbers – we want
to save every dollar we can – those
numbers are not going to make a material
difference,” Foye said. “And our
primary goal is to continue to provide
service to fi rst responders, including
transit workers who are critical to the
city’s and region’s recovery.”
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