Health

Nearly 500 FDNY Members Test Positive For Coronavirus, 3000 Out Sick

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Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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Nearly 500 members of the New York City Fire Department have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and nearly 3000 are out sick.

EMS Lieutenant and paramedic Anthony Almojera joined CNN’s “New Day” to discuss the situation on the ground inside the department Tuesday.

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“I don’t know how we’re doing it. It is truly a testament to the EMS workers that we have here, the EMTs and paramedics. We’re really stepping up,” Almojera said. “It is pretty amazing to see how they’re going out in spite of seeing all the co-workers get sick, it is frightening for a lot of us. We don’t want to bring it home. We don’t want to get sick with it. This is our job. We treat the sick and injured daily. We still have our regular 911 calls to go to. It is truly a testament to the EMTs and paramedics doing this day in and day out.”

“I got to say, as a new Yorker, I see you guys out there and the risks you’re taking and health consequences, I can’t help but think of the wake of 9/11,” host Jim Sciutto responded. “It just echoes those memories in my mind.” (RELATED: NYC Health Committee Chair Says Mass Graves In Parks Could Happen — 30 Days Ago He Told New Yorkers To Party In Chinatown)

Sciutto then read aloud one of Almojera’s tweets from last week, which read, “16 hour day, 15 runs and 10 cardiac arrests calls. That’s a lot of death. Please everyone stay home this is not a joke.”

“As you know, some communities around the country have been slow to institute the stay-at-home orders,” Sciutto continued, asking, “What is your message to communities like that who might imagine they’re somehow immune from this?”

“They’re not immune. Nobody is immune,” Almojera said, addressing those who were ignoring stay-at-home orders and going about their activities as normal. “It is really — it is really a true pandemic that will hurt you.”

Almojera continued:

The toll it is taking on the people that I work with, you know, I get phone calls every day about people who are sick and injured and, you know, and you know what, what really moved me the other day was EMT call, she was sick, and she’s giving us an update and says, ‘You know, I feel bad,’ I go, ‘Of course you feel bad. You’re sick with the virus.’ She said, ‘No, I feel bad because I’m not there with you guys.’ That’s, you know, that’s EMS.

Nearly a week later, Almojera logged another similar day.

FDNY and EMS are not the only departments hit by the virus — according to a CNN report, nearly 20% of the New York Police Department is also sick with similar symptoms.

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