Mayor Adams marks 5 years since COVID pandemic by honoring front-line heroes at Elmhurst Hospital
ELMHURST, Queens (WABC) -- New York City Mayor Eric Adams marked five years since the COVID pandemic shut down the city by honoring some of the front-line heroes who risked their own lives to help others.
The mayor was at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens on Friday morning to honor the staff, and commemorate COVID-19 Remembrance Day, the day five years ago when the first known case of the disease was confirmed in New York.
In the months to come, more than 46,000 residents would die.
Elmhurst was once called "coronavirus ground zero."
The city-run hospital was besieged by COVID-19 cases in the early days of the pandemic, with Elmhurst swelling to 230% over capacity in the first weeks.
It was estimated that 13 patients were dying each day, including some staff members.
"The pandemic was not a crisis. It was a revelation," said Dr. Laura Iavicoli, MD and chief medical officer at Elmhurst Hospital. "It revealed the depths of our resilience, but also the cracks in our system, the vulnerability, those that must never be ignored again."
But the mayor says New Yorkers proved to be stronger than the deadly virus.
"New York City is the greatest city on the globe, because we're made of the greatest people on the globe and they are personified by being the members of Elmhurst Hospital system, the greatest group of medical professionals on the globe," Mayor Adams said.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was mayor during the height of the pandemic, was also in attendance on Friday.
"This was the greatest, most profound crisis in the history of New York City," he said. "And there was an epicenter within the epicenter. And we are standing in it right now. But you all never, ever bent. You never buckled from that moment five years ago to today."
----------
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News
Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.