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Since Sunday, March 1, when the first case of COVID-19 was reported in New York City, 41 MTA transit workers have died, prompting The New York Times to write a story titled “41 Transit Workers Dead: Crisis Takes Staggering Toll on Subways” that was published on Wednesday, April 8.
Since the outbreak, MTA ridership is down more than 90 percent as most New Yorkers adhere to the state’s “stay at home” PAUSE executive order.
Foye said that the MTA has been “grieving over the tragic deaths of many colleagues,” and that the story “only adds to that anguish by ignoring the facts.” He said that the “MTA has taken aggressive action to protect the health and safety of our heroic workforce on the frontlines of this crisis.”
“The only ‘sluggish’ response has been on the part of the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose guidelines against the widespread use of masks the MTA (a transportation organization, not a medical provider) initially followed but has since disregarded,” he wrote.
"To date, we have provided 460,000 N-95 and surgical masks to all of our operating employees in addition to thousands of face shields and 2.5 million pairs of gloves. Only last week – after the MTA acted and we recommended our customers wear face coverings – did the CDC change course and recommend Americans wear masks. The WHO has still not acted. “
During his daily COVID-19 news briefing on Wednesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that it’s important to protect transit workers and other essential employees who have been forced on the front lines amid the virus.
“We’ve lost many of them, transit workers, healthcare workers, people doing the essential functions needed for society to go on,” he said. “And they’re putting themselves at risk and many of them are vulnerable people who this vicious predator of a virus has targeted from day one.
“You have these transit workers who are out there every day, and most of them are busy transporting those healthcare workers who have been helping flatten the curve. You see the illness rate among those essential workers and should respect it.”
Foye made note that shortly after the COVID-19 outbreak began, the MTA implanted new sanitizing procedures, disinfecting stations and fleets of trains twice a day.
The MTA also implemented “rear-door boarding” to ensure social distancing protocols could be properly practiced and eliminated cash transactions to limit person-to-person interaction.
The MTA Chairman noted it has given employees 12,500 gallons and more than 50,000 bottles of hand sanitizer, 500,000 sanitizing wipes and 53,000 gallons of cleaning solution. We will continue to distribute these materials.
“The MTA’s pandemic plan is a blueprint that we have followed and improved on since day one. Unfortunately, what the plan, like others nationwide, did not contemplate was that medical guidance during this specific period would be not to use certain stockpiled items for all employees,” he added. “The MTA’s singular focus is on protecting our heroic employees and customers. Any suggestion otherwise is baseless.
"We have implemented our plan and made necessary changes in real-time as we deal with this unprecedented public health crisis. “
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