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It’s Monday.
Weather: Cooler, with mixed sun and clouds, and a strong afternoon breeze. High in the mid-60s.
Alternate-side parking: Suspended through May 12. Meters are in effect.
Seven states band together on purchasing medical equipment.
A group of Eastern states announced Sunday that they would band together to purchase and allocate the huge amounts of personal protective equipment and medical equipment needed to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking in a joint virtual news conference, the governors of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Delaware said that by aggregating their orders, they expected to be able to purchase at lower prices and better stabilize the supply chain.
The governors of Massachusetts and Rhode Island were not present at the conference, but Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said that their states would also be included. The same seven states agreed in April to coordinate their reopenings.
[Get the latest news and updates on the coronavirus in the New York region.]
Hospitals will be required to build a 90-day supply of protective gear.
Governor Cuomo said Sunday that New York hospitals would be required to build a supply of personal protective equipment that could last 90 days in the face of another outbreak.
He said the state could not undergo another “mad scramble” to send masks where they needed to go, for example.
[Coronavirus in New York: A map and the case count.]
Video appears to show an N.Y.P.D. officer punching a bystander.
A New York City police officer was stripped of his gun and badge after video footage was posted online that appeared to show him violently escalating a confrontation with bystanders.
The officer, Francis X. Garcia, appears in the video pointing a stun gun at bystanders before punching and slapping one man to the ground. The man, one of three people arrested during the encounter, was charged with assaulting a police officer.
The police commissioner, Dermot F. Shea, said Sunday that the officer, whom he did not identify by name, was placed on modified duty while the Internal Affairs Bureau conducted an investigation of the encounter. The commissioner said that the incident began as an attempt to enforce social distancing rules and that he was aware of the video.
What we’re reading
Two men appeared to have died while riding subway trains. [Daily News]
Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn is looking for “ambassadors” to remind visitors of social distancing rules. [Gothamist]
In New Jersey, road signs are urging people not to be a “knucklehead” and to “keep a safe distance.” [New York Post]
And finally: Bedside concerts
The Times’s Benjamin Weiser writes:
At NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital in Manhattan, the music of Bach, Brahms and even the Beatles has begun wafting through coronavirus patients’ rooms, played by accomplished performers — recently out-of-work chamber music players; winners of international competitions and prizes; teachers at prestigious music schools.
They perform from California, Kentucky, Maine, Virginia, Massachusetts and New York, where they are sheltered in place. The music plays through iPhones or iPads placed at the bedsides of patients who indicated they wanted to hear a performance, using FaceTime’s audio-only feature to protect their privacy.
“I’m hoping to offer a brief moment of comfort or distraction or beauty,” said Michelle Ross, a violinist in Manhattan who has performed for the patients.
At Allen Hospital, which is at the northern tip of Manhattan, the toll of coronavirus cases has been particularly devastating. At times, the 200-bed hospital has had as many as 170 coronavirus patients; by early April, there were 59 patient deaths, The New York Times has reported.
It was around that time that the concert idea blossomed. Dr. Rachel Easterwood, who works the night shift in the I.C.U., had despaired at how little could be done for some patients. “I just felt desperate, actually, and helpless,” she said.
One evening off, she listened to a cellist friend in California play Bach for her over FaceTime. Dr. Easterwood, 35, who played clarinet professionally before going to medical school, found the music comforting.
“Man, I wish we could do that in the hospital,” she told her friend, as he recalled the conversation. At that moment, the idea about playing for patients clicked.
The cellist, Andrew Janss, and another friend, Molly Carr, a violist, began recruiting other musicians.
Some of the patients who listened to them were on regular floors, awake and able to communicate. Others, in I.C.U. beds, were on ventilators and heavily sedated.
In those cases, Dr. Easterwood said, she called families to obtain permission for a performance to be played.
She soon expanded the concerts to harried staff members who were being challenged as never before, exposing themselves to health risks, living apart from families and sharing the sadness of patient deaths. On one shift, workers gathered at a nursing station near midnight to hear Mr. Janss play a cello solo.
“We clapped for him, and we asked for one more song,” said Anna Kosmider, a physician assistant. “It’s hard to find those moments of happiness at work.”
Dr. Easterwood also found solace in Mr. Janss’s performance. “It was comforting to me,” she said, “because I, as a doctor, was hurting.”
It’s Monday — turn on your favorite song.
Metropolitan Diary: Found money
Dear Diary:
Ever since I was little, I have believed that found money is lucky. Whether it’s a stray bill, an uncommon silver coin or a common copper penny, they’re all good for a wish — like an evening star or a new moon.
When my wife and I moved from Los Angeles to Manhattan in 1981, one of the newfound joys of city life was walking every day from our apartment on the Upper West Side through Central Park, and then down Sixth Avenue to my office at 46th Street.
Once in a while I would catch the subway at 72nd Street and Central Park West, change at Columbus Circle, and then magically — to me, at least — pop out from the south end of the Rockefeller Center station at the foot of my office building.
Once, as I came up the stairs to street level, I spied a shining Lincoln head on the penultimate step. I paused to pick it up, being careful not to impede either the people coming up behind me or those who were heading down into the station.
As I plucked the penny off the ground, a man on his way down the stairs spoke without breaking stride.
“Hey,” he said. “I saw one of those at 125th Street. If you hurry you can probably get that one, too.”
— Christopher Fryer
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