NYC Coronavirus Claims Lives Of 50 Teachers And School Staffers

NEW YORK CITY — Fifty New Yorkers who dedicated their careers to educating children have died from novel coronavirus, according to the Department of Education.

The fifty — among them 21 teachers, 22 paraprofessionals, two administrators, a cafeteria worker — lost their lives to COVID-19 between March 16 and April 10, according to DOE officials.

“This is painful news for too many of our communities," said Chancellor Richard Carranza. "We mourn these losses and will not forget the impact each person had on our DOE family."

To keep up to date with coronavirus developments in NYC, sign up for Patch's news alerts and newsletter.

The Department of Education culled its data from reports from families and friends of those who had died, not the Department of Health.

The nation’s largest school system, responsible for 1.1 million students, shut down on March 16 one week before Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a statewide stay-at-home order.

Students, parents, teachers and elected officials spent weeks pleading with Mayor Bill de Blasio and Cuomo — who still cannot agree which has authority over the city's schools — to shut down New York campuses.

"This is about people who are beloved in their school communities and have done so much good and now they are gone," de Blasio said Monday morning. "It’s a very painful update."

Read More: No Guarantee NYC Schools Will Reopen In September, Mayor Says

The information was released during what would have been teachers' Spring Break, which was cancelled last week by Carranza.

Dez-Ann Romain, the principal of Brownsville's Brooklyn Democracy Academy, was the first known educator to lose her life to COVID-19.

Another educator was Sandra Santos-Vizcaino, who taught third grade at Brooklyn's P.S. 9 in Prospect Heights and will be remembered as "an amazing hugger."

Coronavirus In NYC: Latest Happenings And Guidance

Email PatchNYC@patch.com to reach a Patch reporter or fill out this anonymous form to share your coronavirus stories. All messages are confidential.