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COURIER L 10 IFE, JULY 10-16, 2020
Pols prep for
‘second wave’
Locals gather outside of CEBU in Bay Ridge during Phase Two of the city’s reopening. Local
lawmakers are hoping to get ahead of any potential “second wave.”
REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
BY JESSICA PARKS
As the city cautiously reopens following
the deadly coronavirus outbreak,
two southern Brooklyn legislators
are working to ensure the
coronavirus pandemic won’t again
devastate the city.
“COVID-19 descended swiftly and
demonstrated that City and State government
were not prepared for a pandemic,”
said State Senator Andrew
Gounardes. “Our public servants were
not provided with the proper safety
measures, which in some cases cost
them their lives.”
The Bay Ridge senator introduced
legislation on June 22 requiring all local
and state employers in New York
to publish pandemic plans outlining
which employees can work from home,
as well as safety measures for those that
must continue showing up in person.
“Requiring public employers to
draft and publish a contingency plan for
the next global health pandemic will be
integral in saving lives and rebuilding
the trust between public employees and
workers,” Gounardes said. “We need to
protect those who kept our city running
and can never get caught fl at-footed like
this again.”
Union leaders commended the senator’s
legislation as an estimated 270 city
employees have lost their lives to the
coronavirus as of May.
“This legislation is a critical fi rst
step in state emergency planning as it
requires public employers to work with
the unions to develop an emergency response
plan to provide public employees
with greater clarity on their roles and
responsibilities, to delineate their designated
work locations and to ensure
appropriate precautions are made to
protect their personal health and safety
in the event of a resurgence of COVID-19
or another public health emergency,”
said Wayne Spence, president of the
Public Employees Federation.
In another an effort to keep the city’s
infection rates low, Gounardes teamed
up with Councilman Justin Brannan
earlier this week to urge city offi cials
to help neighborhood organizations encourage
their communities to practice
social distancing.
“New Yorkers might be done with
COVID, but unfortunately COVID isn’t
done with New York just yet,” Brannan
said. “It is so great to see businesses
opening up again but we cannot let New
Yorkers act as if everything is back to
normal.”
In Brannan and Gounardes’ plan, local
community groups would be given
the tools to help educate their neighbors
on the dangers of the coronavirus and
the importance of social distancing.
The legislators additionally requested
that city offi cials implement consequences
for frequent and intentional offenders
of social distancing.
“While we are all desperate to get
back to normal, slacking on social distancing
requirements puts our community
members’ lives at risk – plain and
simple,” Gounardes said.
The legislators’ call comes as the
city entered into Phase Three on July
6 without the addition of indoor dining
per Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew
Cuomo’s back-to-back announcements
— citing the cause as rising infections
in states that have opened up
dining indoors.
“We cannot go ahead, at this point
in time, with indoor dining in New
York City,” the mayor said.