Coronavirus Crisis: Snapshot of New York City

Long Supermarket Lines

Image Credit: George Etheredge for Rolling Stone

Brooklynites wait in a long socially distanced line outside a Food Bazaar supermarket in East Williamsburg. “It was pretty orderly but everyone seemed a little freaked out. They were a little agitated,” says photographer George Etheredge, who documented the city in late March after it soared to become the epicenter of the global pandemic. At a press conference several days later, White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx warned of an upcoming surge and added, “This is the moment to not be going to the grocery store.” — Captions by David Browne
Bad for Business

Image Credit: George Etheredge for Rolling Stone

Nabil Alsaidi behind the counter of his corner store, Myrtle Mini Market, in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Nabil, who has owned the store for about 10 years, says business has been down around 40 percent.
Battling Density

Image Credit: George Etheredge for Rolling Stone

The intersection of Broadway Avenue and Flushing Avenue in Brooklyn. “It wasn’t as busy as usual, but it was pretty busy,” says Etheredge. “People were still out. What are you going to do? At least they had masks.” Woodhull Hospital, a public facility located close to this intersection, was so overwhelmed with virus patients that it was forced to transfer 15 patients to Bellevue in Manhattan.
Disturbing Sights

Image Credit: George Etheredge for Rolling Stone

At Bellevue, the country’s oldest public hospital, doctors have long battled medical crises: yellow fever in the 1700s, the 1918 flu, the AIDS epidemic in the Eighties. This taxi driver was sitting in his cab as a hearse pulled out of the hospital, and his expression captures the anxiety many felt when seeing such sights. “I like to capture people’s reactions to situations,” says Etheredge. “While I was out, I was trying to think of people who were going to be affected first, like taxi drivers.”
Keeping Their Distance

Image Credit: George Etheredge for Rolling Stone

At the Food Bazaar market in Brooklyn, where the rules for social distancing were apparent in the space between each customer on line, Etheredge was struck by the sight of a mother clutching her daughter, keeping them both an even farther distance from the others.
The Fast Food Frontline

Image Credit: George Etheredge for Rolling Stone

The fast food industry has carried on, closing dining rooms but still offering affordable meals for those with reduced budgets. At a KFC in Bushwick, Brooklyn, employee German Mendez stood behind a plastic-encased counter, with taped markers on the floor to remind customers of how far apart they should be. “It was this place we all know, but with the plastic it had changed,” Etheredge says. “It was weird and disturbing. It felt otherworldly. Then the plastic would open and a bucket of fried chicken would come out.”
Waiting for the Train

Image Credit: George Etheredge for Rolling Stone

The impact of the virus on New York’s mass transit system has been considerable; as of April 8th, 41 transit workers had died from the virus and nearly 6,000 were in self-quarantine. Overall, ridership on subways and buses was down by nearly 90 percent. But some, like Adria Caceres, in foreground, at the Broadway Junction station in East New York, had no choice but to take public transportation, which was often delayed as a result of sick transit workers. “The train was taking so long,” Etheredge says, “but some people can’t afford to take Lyfte.”
Still Working

Image Credit: George Etheredge for Rolling Stone

A normally packed escalator at the Broadway Junction station occupied by only a single worker.
Helping Hands

Image Credit: George Etheredge for Rolling Stone

Around the city, businesses shifted to pandemic-related operations to pitch in with the relief efforts. At Kings County Distillery in Brooklyn, owners switched over to manufacturing 70-percent-alcohol hand sanitizer (made of alcohol, hydrogen peroxide and glycerin). Sebastian Oja was one of many workers tasked with placing labels on the bottles.
Team Work

Image Credit: George Etheredge for Rolling Stone

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for health care workers has been particularly crucial in New York, leading to businesses like Duggal Visual Solutions (a photo and print production company) and Bednark Studio (a design and fabric company), which are both based in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, to team up to make masks. “There were over 100 people in there and it was super loud — they had speakers playing rock and hip hop,” says Etheredge. “Some people told me they were racing each other to see who could get the most masks done. Some were maintenance workers and others were managers or designers. There were all these people at different levels job-wise doing the same job together.”
The Race to Make Masks

Image Credit: George Etheredge for Rolling Stone

Maria Montero, a quality control manager for Duggal Visual Solutions, fabricating a face shield on March 30th. That same day, President Trump seemed to accuse New York hospital employees of stealing. (“Where are the masks going? Are they going out of the back door? How do you go from 10,000 to 300,000 [masks used per week], and we have that in a lot of different places. They have to look at that in New York.”)
Field Hospital

Image Credit: George Etheredge for Rolling Stone

The Samaritan’s Purse Emergency Field Hospital, a respiratory care unit with 14 tents and 68 beds set up in Central Park’s East Meadow. “Central Park isn’t supposed to look like that,” says Etheredge. “It was like a scene out of ET, but with people taking their kids for a walk or other people jogging by.” The field hospital was set up by an evangelical Christian organization run by Franklin Graham, son of the late evangelist Billy Graham, which courted controversy because the orgnanization requires its health care workers to sign statements that “marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female.” In response to the controversy, Graham said, “We provide our services to everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation. We don’t discrimnate. Period.”
Food Delivery in High Demand

Image Credit: George Etheredge for Rolling Stone

A bike delivery worker waits at a stoplight near Bellevue Hospital. With restaurants closing their dining rooms all around New York, food delivery workers are more in demand, putting those workers on the coronavirus front lines.
Comfort Arrives

Image Credit: George Etheredge for Rolling Stone

The USNS Comfort hospital ship arrived March 30th to provide 1,000 beds for patients not dealing with the virus. “It was pretty dramatic to see this huge ship there,” says Etheredge, who joined sightseers and tourists gathering for a glimpse of the Comfort that morning and to hear remarks by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (who asked the White House for 400 more ventilators). “People were peering through the quarantine barricades and taking pictures, and the police started to kick them out if they were too close to each other.” Since the ship has strict medical guidelines on which medical conditions it can handle, many of the beds sat empty, to the frustration of local officials. A crew member later tested positive for COVID-19.
New York State of Mind

Image Credit: George Etheredge for Rolling Stone

A medical mask decoration hangs in the window of an apartment at Kips Bay Towers in Manhattan. “I was just leaving Bellevue Hospital and saw that ‘mask’ someone had put in a window,” says Etheredge. “I was looking out for things like this, and I didn’t see that many of them. But this was funny and light, and a little hopeful.”

Long Supermarket Lines

Bad for Business

Battling Density

Disturbing Sights

Keeping Their Distance

The Fast Food Frontline

Waiting for the Train

Still Working

Helping Hands

Team Work

The Race to Make Masks

Field Hospital

Food Delivery in High Demand

Comfort Arrives

New York State of Mind