Governor announces death benefits will be available for frontline workers who died from Covid-19

Staff Reports Posted 25 May 2020 at 3:55 pm

Photo by Tom Rivers: This sign, showing the Statue of Liberty with a mask, is on display outside the Village Clerk’s Office in Medina.

Governor Andrew Cuomo today announced that state and local governments will provide death benefits for frontline workers who died from COVID-19 during this emergency pandemic.

Cuomo also renewed his call for the federal government to provide hazard pay for essential public workers on the front lines.

“During these troubling times there have been so many New Yorkers who have really risen to the challenge and done more than anyone could ask for or expect, and we want to make sure that we remember them and we thank those heroes for all that they’ve done,” Cuomo said. “I personally feel a grave responsibility to our frontline and essential workers who understood the dangers of this virus, but went to work anyway because we needed them to. And we’re going to make sure that every government in the State of New York provides death benefits to those public heroes who died from COVID-19 during this emergency.”

Cuomo noted today on Memorial Day that more than 100,000 Americans will lose their lives to the coronavirus.

“I know that I feel a grave responsibility to our frontline workers, our essential workers, who understood the dangers of this COVID virus, but went to work anyway because we needed them to,” Cuomo said. “We needed the nurses and the doctors to perform phenomenal service in the hospitals. We needed the police, the fire department, the EMS, to show up. We needed the frontline workers in grocery stores to show up so others could stay home and be safe.

“And I bear heavy the responsibility of explaining to the people of this state and beyond what we were dealing with when we were dealing with the COVID virus and how dangerous it was, and then in the same breath asking people to please show up tomorrow – having just explained how dangerous it was. And many of those people who showed up and did their duty and served with honor lost their lives to keep others of us safe. In many ways that is a microcosm of what we’re here talking about today on Memorial Day.”

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