One Brooklyn
April 20, 2020
Brooklyn, NY – Today, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams called on the City to join other metropolises like Newark, New Jersey and Stamford, Connecticut that are providing free face coverings for all who request one in order to combat the spread of the virus and keep people safe. He made this call as he handed out hundreds of masks to transit riders leaving the Borough Hall subway station in Downtown Brooklyn to help slow the spread of COVID-19, after a statewide order went into effect on Friday night mandating that all New Yorkers wear masks in public spaces where social distancing isn’t possible.
“Many of the essential employees commuting to work come from the communities of color that have been hit hardest by the pandemic, communities that are also under-resourced with the personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to combat COVID-19,” said Borough President Adams. “Providing our overburdened frontline workers with masks takes one thing off their plate. Providing our seniors and vulnerable populations with masks prevents them from being price gouged or even priced out of the public health practices that the City and State are asking everyone to follow. Many of the grateful commuters I connected with were using makeshift face coverings, sharing face coverings with their families, or had been wearing the same soiled mask for more than a week. The greatest city in the world can do better than that.”
Just hours after this call was made, the State announced that it would deliver more than 500,000 cloth masks to New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) residents — at least one for every resident — as well as 10,000 gallons of hand sanitizer. This mirrors what Borough President Adams and his team have been doing for the last three weeks. To date, they have personally distributed thousands of donated masks to NYCHA residents across the borough, including at Lafayette Gardens in Bedford-Stuyvesant; Wyckoff Gardens in Boerum Hill; Tilden Houses and Van Dyke Houses in Brownsville; Hope Gardens in Bushwick; Atlantic Terminal Houses, Farragut Houses, and Walt Whitman Houses in Fort Greene; Cooper Park Houses in East Williamsburg; Red Hook Houses East and Red Hook Houses West in Red Hook; Ocean Hill Apartments in Ocean Hill, as well as Borinquen Plaza, Bushwick Houses, Hylan Houses, and Williamsburg Houses in Williamsburg.
Borough President Adams noted that he will continue to personally distribute donated masks and other PPE to New Yorkers as long as supply is available; additionally, he underscored that donations of N95 masks will be reserved specifically for hospitals and other frontline medical institutions. He reminded anyone in need of assistance, or with the ability to volunteer or donate supplies during this pandemic, to fill out the form at brooklyn-usa.org/you-can-help-brooklyn.
PHOTOS
Photo Credit: Hercules Reid/Brooklyn BP’s Office
Photo Credit: Hercules Reid/Brooklyn BP’s Office
