9 Rikers Inmates Isolated After First Coronavirus Case: Mayor

NEW YORK CITY — Eight Rikers Island detainees have shown symptoms of the new coronavirus after one inmate in his 30s tested positive for the disease, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday.

The nine have been isolated in Rikers Island's communicable disease unit and 40 detainees who have been deemed at higher risk will be considered for release later Thursday, de Blasio said.

Lawmakers advocating for widespread release estimate approximately 900 people imprisoned in city jails are at risk because of their age and health.

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The man who tested positive is "health-wise doing okay," de Blasio said.

The NYPD and the Mayor's Office for Criminal Justice are going through files of Rikers detainees who qualify — those at high risk for becoming seriously ill and held on minor charges — case by case, said the mayor.

Twenty-two New York City residents have died and 3,615 tested positive for the coronavirus, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday.

The number of people hospitalized is 554 with 169 in the intensive care unit, according to the mayor.There are 980 cases in Queens, 976 in Manhattan, 1,030 in Brooklyn, 436 in the Bronx and 165 in Staten Island, official data show.

"We are seeing an explosion of cases in New York City," de Blasio said.

New York City could face a mass shortage of medical supplies if the federal government doesn't supply the following by early April, the mayor said.

• 3 million N95 masks
• 50 million surgical masks
• 15,000 ventilators
• 25 million surgical gowns
• 25 million coveralls
• 25 million gloves
• 25 million face masks

"If the federal government doesn't act immediately ... there will be people who die who didn't need to die," said de Blasio. "The federal government has two weeks."

Eight testing centers are now open on an appointment-only basis at the following at NYC Health + Hospitals: Bellevue, Elmhurst, Harlem, Metropolitan, Kings County, Lincoln, Woodhull and Queens hospitals.

Two more testing sites at Coney Island and Jacobi hospitals are slated to open next week, officials said.

De Blasio also called on the federal government to send the U.S. Military to New York City.

"The front is right here," he said. "Why have they not been activated and sent to New York City?"

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