New York, the city that never sleeps, has fallen silent. Less than two weeks after the introduction of the first containment measures, the metropolis is unrecognizable. In the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, now the most affected country in the world, the anxiety is palpable. The figures explain it: more than 33,000 cases recorded by Johns Hopkins University in New York alone. A person dies there from the virus every fourteen minutes or so now. 776 people died and we could see the bodies transported by freight elevator in refrigerated trucks, these improvised morgues that park near several hospitals. Two nurses died last week and dozens more are infected, as are several doctors.
“We are overwhelmed, we need help immediately,” implored Mayor Bill De Blasio on Monday, once again denouncing the shortage of artificial respirators and protective equipment. To which President Trump, an original New Yorker, replied: “New York really has problems, but I think it’s going to end well” …
Optimistic words. “It’s a real health disaster,” said Dr. Julien Cavanagh on Canadian television. For this neurologist by training, mobilized for several days on the front of the pandemic in a Brooklyn hospital, “we must strengthen containment, it is crucial to limit the spread of the epidemic”.
Here, no travel certificate is needed
After a few days of floating, confinement, extended this Monday until April 30, is rather well respected. The city seems stunned. Everything is closed, except establishments with activity considered essential, supermarkets, pharmacies, a few banks, laundromats and… liquor stores, wine shops. But the bars and restaurants of the metropolis had to be closed, some for good, and some 250,000 employees of bars and restaurants were fired. Same disaster for many small businesses and the economic disaster is already raising the specter of the Great Depression, mentioned by the mayor.
Few passers-by venture into the streets. There is no need for a travel certificate here, but you must keep a distance of two meters from other pedestrians, otherwise the police can intervene. The incessant concert of horns, so emblematic of the city, is silent. We can only hear the sirens of the ambulances rushing down deserted avenues at all hours of the day and night.
Times Square is a ghost district, the Broadway theaters closed their doors two weeks ago… Wall Street, Greenwich Village, Chinatown, all these destinations so popular with the 800,000 French people who come here every year, are deserted. The buses run almost empty, the metro runs slowly. New Yorkers are holed up in their homes and many have their groceries brought home by delivery men, mostly immigrants, hailed as heroes.
A makeshift hospital in Central Park
“Days are alike,” says JC Muyl, a French consultant who has lived in New York for years. We watch TV, we do some exercise, we do yoga, we connect with family and friends. It’s amazing to think that a fortnight ago everything was normal here and it’s hard to imagine a return to normal. “Rosa Lopez, a resident of the Bronx adds:” Me, I no longer go out, I wait, all my contacts are with WhatsApp or Zoom (Editor’s note: a videoconferencing application). And I’m worried about the health of my mother who lives with me. “
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Because the most urgent fight is in the hospitals, often overwhelmed, that it is waged. In Central Park, just in front of Mount Sinai Hospital, a charity is hastily erecting tents that will accommodate dozens of sick people. “I never thought I would be here,” says the doctor in charge of the facility, a veteran of the Ebola crisis in Africa. Same race against the clock on the other side of town, on the banks of the Hudson, where the vast Javits conference center will house at least a thousand beds. And where the Comfort, a US Navy hospital ship, anchored on Monday …
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