The Wall Street Journal - 07.04.2020

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ** Tuesday, April 7, 2020 |A12A

and masks.

Agudath Israel of America,

an umbrella organization of

ultra-Orthodox rabbinical

groups, planned to release

guidance limiting funeral par-

ties to 20 people.

Rabbi Avi Shafran, a

spokesman for the group, said

that although the recom-

mended number might seem

high to secular society, many

ultra-Orthodox families in-

clude eight or nine children

as well as dozens of grand-

children.

“The vast number of de-

scendants of a deceased per-

son will basically be barred

from the funeral,” Rabbi

Shafran said.

Rabbi Shafran added that

he believed the large number

of coronavirus cases in some

ultra-Orthdox communities

was partly because the festival

of Purim fell in early March,

before many social-distancing

restrictions were put in place.

“There’s probably no day in

the Jewish year where there’s

more physical contact among

Jews and more dense crowds,”

Rabbi Shafran said of the fes-

tival, which is celebrated with

large parties where people

dance and hold hands.

“There’s no doubt that was a

major vector.”

—Katie Honan

and Jimmy Vielkind

contributed to this article.

chief administrator of the

holding company MacAndrews

& Forbes; Bill Mulrow, senior

advisory director at private-eq-

uity firm Blackstone; and Law-

rence Schwartz, chief strategy

officer at OTG, an airport-con-

cessions company. All three re-

viously held senior roles in Mr.

Cuomo’s administration and

political campaigns.

The men are consulting

with medical and economic ex-

perts about whether certain

industries might be able to re-

store normal operations more

quickly than others, a person

familiar with their work said.

It’s too soon to say what

they will decide, the person

said, noting that the needs of

law firms are different from

the needs of restaurants.

Jonathan Bowles, executive

director of the nonpartisan pol-

icy group Center for an Urban

Future, said tourism was essen-

tial to reviving New York City’s

economic recovery after the

Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The city and state un-

leashed a robust promotional

campaign after the attacks,

and tourism has increased

since then, with more than 65

million people visiting New

York City last year compared

with less than 40 million in

2000.

“I think that those kinds of

$1.50 an hour to $6, as it sought

to increase the pool of prison-

ers available to staff operations

there, the officials said.

The plan to place bodies at

Hart Island exists only as a

contingency, said a spokes-

woman for Mayor Bill de Bla-

sio on Monday.

A spokeswoman for the

city’s Office of Chief Medical

Examiner said that no decision

has been made yet on imple-

menting the plan.

When asked about the mat-

teratanewsconferenceon

Monday, Mr. de Blasio said the

city has plans for bodies as

the local death toll mounts.

“We will have the capacity

for temporary burials. That’s

all I’m going to say,” the

mayor said.

New York state faces a piv-

otal point in its handling of

the novel coronavirus, as the

daily death toll from the dis-

ease has remained relatively

flat for two days, indicating

the outbreak may have peaked

or plateaued, Gov. Andrew

Cuomo said at a news confer-

ence on Monday.

Still, the state has 130,

positive cases, with more than

half of them in New York City,

according to state figures. In

all, 4,758 have died statewide

from the disease.

The number of people

GREATER NEW YORK

newly hospitalized with the

disease fell to its lowest point

since March 18 on Sunday,

with 358 new admissions, rep-

resenting three straight days

of declines in hospitalizations

for the virus.

New virus hospitalizations

for the state peaked on April 2

with 1,427 new admissions, ac-

cording to state officials.

The governor said intuba-

tions and admissions to inten-

sive-care wards also declined

Sunday, but he warned that

precautionary measures to

stop the spread of the virus

are still needed. He said he

would extend the closure of

schools and nonessential busi-

nesses until April 29. And he

also said he would raise fines

for violating rules to stop

Covid-19 from $500 to $1,000.

“This is an enemy we have

underestimated since day one,

and we have paid the price

dearly,” Mr. Cuomo said.

On Monday afternoon, the

governor said President

Trump agreed to allow pa-

tients with coronavirus to be

treated on the USNS Comfort,

which is docked in the Hudson

River at a Manhattan pier. The

Comfort, which has 1,000 hos-

pital beds, previously only

served patients who didn’t

have the virus.

At Manhattan’s Jacob K.

Javits Convention Center, the

governor said he would build

hospital capacity by allowing

1,500 temporary hospital beds

in to be used by coronavirus

patients.

New York City is consider-
ing using temporary graves in
its potter’s field to handle the
mounting deaths from the new
coronavirus pandemic, city of-
ficials said Monday, even as
data show that the outbreak in
the nation’s hardest-hit state
may have peaked or plateaued.
The city has a contingency
plan to bury people temporar-
ily on Hart Island, depending
on the city’s capacity needs as
private cemeteries struggle to
deal with an increase in inter-
ments, the officials said.
The island is a city park off
the coast of the Bronx and is
one of the largest public ceme-
teries in the country. For more
than a century, it has been a
burial ground for low-income
New York City residents and
unclaimed bodies.
The island is operated by
the city Department of Correc-
tion. Inmates at the city’s Rik-
ers Island jail complex have
worked on burials at Hart Is-
land for more than 50 years,
according to correction offi-
cials.
In March, the city increased
the amount of money it pays in-
mates to help place caskets in
graves at Hart Island from

BYBENCHAPMAN
ANDKATIEHONAN

Island Prepped for Temporary Burials

As private cemeteries

struggle to handle

rising deaths, officials

look to potter’s field

Workers on Hart Island, which for more than a century has been a burial ground for poor New York City residents and unclaimed bodies.

BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS

marketing efforts could be re-

ally helpful,” Mr. Bowles said.

“When it comes to restarting

the city’s economy, I’m abso-

lutely convinced that tourism

is going to be key.”

Kathryn Wylde, chief execu-

tive of the business organiza-

tion Partnership for New York

City, said New Yorkers should

apply as quickly as possible

for the unemployment benefits

and small-business assistance

provided by the recently en-

acted federal stimulus pack-

age.

“Get that $2 trillion into

our local economy as fast as

possible,” she said. “That’s the

most important way to ensure

recovery.”

Businesses with fewer than

500 employees, including non-

profits, can apply for first-

come, first-served forgivable

loans that can be used to

cover up to two months of

payroll.

Taking advantage of these

loanswillsaveemployersthe

time of rehiring laid-off work-

ers and hopefully get their

businesses back up and run-

ning quicker, Ms. Wylde said.

“It keeps payroll going,

even while the economy is

down, so businesses don’t

have to restart from scratch,”

she said.

Ms. Wylde said she is nev-

ertheless worried about busi-

ness owners being able to ac-

cess the capital they need to

restart.

Some advocacy groups and

lawmakers have proposed can-

celing rent payments during

the pandemic, but Ms. Wylde

said that could prevent prop-

erty owners from making loan

payments and banks from is-

suing lines of credit.

“There are large questions

looming that make it very

hard to plan for recovery,” Ms.

Wylde said. “The first being,

when will we be able to go

back to business? And then,

will our financial system be

able to provide the capital

necessary to reopen?”

Marco Chirico said he

wants to reopen one of his two

Brooklyn restaurants, Marco

Polo, after the pandemic ends

but the expenses involved are

daunting. Mr. Chirico closed

the 36-year-old Italian restau-

rant in mid-March and has

been offering delivery and

pickup out of his other restau-

rant, Enoteca On Court.

Mr. Chirico said he is con-

cerned about being able to

hire back all the employees he

laid off, having enough money

to pay the bills that are piling

up during the pandemic and

finding the cash to replenish

his inventory.

“When this is all said and

done, it’s going to be like

opening a new restaurant,”

Mr. Chirico said.

Liz Neumark, owner of the

Bronx-based Great Perfor-

mances, which caters corpo-

rate, nonprofit and private

events, said she also is wor-

ried about cash flow during

what she expects will be a

very slow recovery for the

hospitality industry after the

public-health crisis ends.

“Money’s going to be a real

issue,” she said. “As we ramp

up we’ll need help from finan-

cial institutions for cash flow

and for that jump-start.”

Ms. Neumark was preparing

for gala season, which usually

includes hundreds of events,

and was forced to furlough

25% of her 1,200 employees.

She is trying to figure out

how people will feel about din-

ing out after the pandemic

ends, including such questions

as when people will feel com-

fortable eating in large groups

again, and how they will want

their food served.

“I do have faith that the

world will come back,” Ms.

Neumark said. “People will

have events again. People will

get on airplanes. People will

pass the hors d’oeuvres with-

out cringing. But I think it’s

going to be really, really slow

and really difficult.”

—Jimmy Vielkind

contributed to this article.

One day—hopefully soon—
the city that never sleeps will
turn to the task of waking up
its comatose economy.
Many are dreaming of the
day when New York City’s
shops, restaurants, bars, ho-
tels, theaters, salons, tourist
traps, stadiums, concert halls,
museums and galleries will re-
open after being closed for
weeks to prevent the spread of
the new coronavirus.
But with the city and state
still grappling with the public-
health crisis, no one knows
when businesses will be al-
lowed to resume operations—
or how they will survive in an
economy where hundreds of
thousands of New Yorkers are
filing for unemployment bene-
fits.
“You turned off the engine
quickly, how do you now start
or begin to restart or plan the
restart of that economic en-
gine?” said New York Gov. An-
drew Cuomo at a March 23
news conference. He had or-
dered all nonessential busi-
nesses closed as of March 22.
The governor has tapped
several former aides to de-
velop a statewide “NYS For-
ward” plan to examine how to
unwind the restrictions.
The team includes Steven
M. Cohen, general counsel and

BYKATEKING

Gov. Cuomo Turns an Eye to Restarting Economy

Times Square last month. The governor has asked former aides to

develop an ‘NYS Forward’ plan to unwind the virus restrictions.

SARAH BLESENER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

the weekend have shown hun-

dreds of men crowding side-

walks and streets for ultra-Or-

thodox funerals. Most weren’t

wearing masks or maintaining

6 feet of separation, the vid-

eos show.

Ultra-Orthodox leaders and

New York Police Department

officials said Monday that the

gatherings in Brooklyn were

outliers and that most people

are following social-distancing

guidelines imposed because of

the new coronavirus.

NYPD officers dispersed the

funeral crowds over the week-

end with sirens and by playing

messages about social distanc-

ing.

“These gatherings must

cease immediately,” said NYPD

spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Fran-

ces O’Donnell.

Yosef Rapaport, an ultra-

Orthodox journalist and media

consultant based in Borough

Park, said Jewish rabbis have

told followers to adhere to

health guidelines.

“It’s a puzzle to me how

some people know and still

don’t comply,” he said.

City Councilman Stephen

Levin, who represents Wil-

liamsburg, said the community

should find ways to practice

social distancing while still

honoring the religious ritual.

“Of all things to ask a com-

munity not to do, I think fu-

nerals are probably the hard-

est,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rockland

County, which is about 30

miles north of New York City

and is home to a large ultra-

Orthodox population, has one

of the highest per-capita rates

of the disease in the nation,

according to federal officials.

Rockland County Executive

Ed Day, who has been frus-

trated by several recent Jew-

ish funerals involving more

than 100 mourners, welcomed

Mr. Cuomo’s remarks on Mon-

day.

Mr. Day said in an interview

that police officers in Rock-

land County would use local

health codes to fine people up

to $2,000 for flouting social-

distancing rules.

He said gatherings should

be capped at 10 people,

though officers would use dis-

cretion if the group was

slightly larger but properly

spaced out and wearing gloves

New York officials on Mon-
day urged ultra-Orthodox Jew-
ish communities to follow so-
cial-distancing rules after
police broke up crowds at
three religious funerals in
Brooklyn over the weekend.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at
a news conference that he
would double the maximum
fines to $1,000 for people who
flout the rules.
“This is my way of saying,
this is serious,” Mr. Cuomo
said, referencing large ultra-
Orthodox gatherings. “What
right do you have to act irre-
sponsibly in a way that could
get you sick?”
New York is the epicenter
of the nation’s coronavirus cri-
sis, accounting for a third of
the cases in the country.
Brooklyn neighborhoods
with large ultra-Orthodox
communities, such as Borough
Park, Midwood and Williams-
burg, have among the highest
numbers of confirmed cases of
the virus in New York City, ac-
cording to city data.
Videos on social media over

BYPAULBERGER
ANDBENCHAPMAN

Ultra-Orthodox Community

Warned on Large Gatherings

Crowds of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men gathered Sunday for a funeral in Brooklyn’s Borough Park section.

SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES

NY