“It’s completely unreal. Gigi, a New Yorker visiting Times Square on Tuesday March 31, is in shock. Portable in his right hand, mask in his left hand, he contemplates the almost empty “crossroads of the world”. Only a few curious people wander through the usually crowded square, which New Yorkers themselves take care to avoid in normal times. All around, its legendary light screens continue to shine brightly, but some advertise musicals that no one can see due to the closure of Broadway theaters.
On others, coworking office ads follow messages of encouragement for nursing staff. “Staying apart from others is the best way to stay united,” reads one screen. “There are still three weeks, Times Square was full of people, continues Gigi. We couldn’t walk. Now everything is closed, lifeless. It is as if all of humanity has vanished overnight. “
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“Incomprehensible”, “absurd”, “traumatic” are some of the adjectives that come to mind to describe what New Yorkers have been going through for the past few days. Their city, a bubbling megalopolis that has become the American epicenter of Covid-19, has been radically transformed by the virus. In addition to closed shops and museums, there were morgues, installed outside hospitals to store bodies.
In Central Park, a field hospital
The Jacob Javits Center convention center, which still hosted the Vinexpo wine fair four weeks ago, has been transformed into a large hospital with 1,200 beds. A field hospital has been set up in Central Park, in an area usually reserved for picnics. Others are being set up, including one at the US Open tennis venue in Flushing Meadows, Queens.
On Monday, after 130,000 masks sent by China arrived at JFK Airport, the massive US Army hospital ship, USNS Comfort, docked at Pier 90, a short walk from the aircraft carrier-museum Intrepid on the Hudson River. On board this white boat marked with the red cross, nearly 1,000 beds are supposed to accommodate patients not affected by Covid-19, so as to relieve New York hospitals already under pressure.
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Since the arrival of the ship, joggers, cyclists and pedestrians, who continue to walk along the river in numbers to get some fresh air, mass against the fences, under the eyes of the police officers who do not hesitate to disperse them. Everyone tries to see the huge building sent by the federal government. The last time the ship came to New York, it was after the attacks of September 11, 2001, to serve as a resting point for rescuers, firefighters and other “first responders” intervening in the ruins of the twin towers destroyed by Al -Qaida.
Axel Negron, met in Times Square, said he was “relieved” to see the striking images of the Comfort walk past the Statue of Liberty. “It’s a step in the right direction, a sign of progress. We need it, ”he says.
Spring flowering
All the good news is up for grabs right now. At least 1,096 people have died from the new coronavirus in the city and 11,000 are hospitalized. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday that “the worst will surely come in the coming weeks.”
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Despite this deadly climate, parts of the city remain bustling – a bit too much for the local authorities’ taste. The parks and playgrounds, widely used by families and air-sick athletes, remain open, despite calls to City Hall and State Governor Andrew Cuomo to close them in order to reduce the risk of contagion.
In Central Park, joggers and cyclists are far from having deserted the paths of green space with flowering trees, even around the field hospital set up by the evangelical association Samaritan’s Purse. Joe Downes and his partner Elizabeth stopped to watch the teams of volunteers at work to set up the 14 white tents of this hospital. “It’s scary, but it’s a good thing that all this help is coming here,” Joe puts it into perspective. It all sounds like it came out of a sci-fi movie, but the city will get over it. “
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