Seth Wenig/AP
Barry Williams/for New York Daily News
Ted Shaffrey/AP
Ted Shaffrey/AP
Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
Sally Stapleton/AP
Seth Wenig/AP
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News
Barry Williams for New York Daily News
Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News
Kathy Willens/AP
Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News
David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
Frank Franklin II/AP
Cindy Ord/Getty Images
Al Bello/Getty Images
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News
Bebeto Matthews/AP
Jeenah Moon/Getty Images
Mary Altaffer/AP
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images
Michael M Santiago/GettyImages/Getty Images
Frank Franklin II/AP
Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News
TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
Gene J. Puskar/AP
Bryan Thomas/Getty Images
Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News
Cindy Ord/Getty Images
Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News
TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images
Mike Groll/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo via AP
Barry Williams/for New York Daily News
Frank Franklin II/AP
Cindy Ord/Getty Images
Bryan Thomas/Getty Images
Kathy Willens/AP
Seth Wenig/AP
Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Kathy Willens/AP
BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images
Gene J. Puskar/AP
Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Kathy Willens/AP
Barry Williams/for New York Daily News
Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
John Minchillo/AP
Al Bello/Getty Images
Al Bello/Getty Images
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Frank Franklin II/AP
BRUCE BENNETT/Getty Images
Ted Shaffrey/AP
Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News
Mary Altaffer/AP
Frank Franklin II/AP
Kevin P. Coughlin/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo via AP
Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Jeenah Moon/Getty Images
Al Bello/Getty Images
Barry Williams/for New York Daily News
Barry Williams/for New York Daily News
Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo via AP
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Gene J. Puskar/AP
Frank Franklin II/AP
Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News
Frank Franklin II/AP
Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News
Cindy Ord/Getty Images
Cindy Ord/Getty Images
BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images
Bryan Thomas/Getty Images
Mary Altaffer/AP
Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News
Michael M Santiago/GettyImages/Getty Images
Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News
KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images
Michael M Santiago/GettyImages/Getty Images
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images
Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News
Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
Cindy Ord/Getty Images
Frank Franklin II/AP
Michael M Santiago/GettyImages/Getty Images
John Minchillo/AP
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Barry Williams/for New York Daily News
Theodore Parisienne for New York Daily News
Gardiner Anderson for New York Daily News
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images
Kathy Willens/AP
Michael M Santiago/GettyImages/Getty Images
Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Michael M Santiago/GettyImages/Getty Images
Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News
Barry Williams/for New York Daily News
Kathy Willens/AP
Frank Franklin II/AP
Mark Lennihan/AP
Bryan Thomas/Getty Images
Kathy Willens/AP
Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News
Bryan Thomas/Getty Images
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images
Seth Wenig/AP
BRUCE BENNETT/Getty Images
Kathy Willens/AP
ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images
Michael M Santiago/GettyImages/Getty Images
Mary Altaffer/AP
David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images
Mary Altaffer/AP
Barry Williams/for New York Daily News
Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
Barry Williams for New York Daily News
Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News
Al Bello/Getty Images
Al Bello/Getty Images
ALBANY ? Families of frontline workers killed by coronavirus will be entitled to government-backed benefits, Gov. Cuomo announced Monday.
The governor, holding his daily briefing aboard the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum in honor of Memorial Day, said public health workers, police, firefighters, transit workers and medics deserve more than just a thank you for their work during the pandemic.
“We will continue to show respect to our frontline heroes not just with words, but with action,” Cuomo said.
“I want to make sure we repay that debt,” Cuomo said. “The least we can do, what we must do for their families, we should make sure their families get death benefits.”
Money for the benefits will be provided by local or state pension funds, the governor said.
Antibody testing, which can potentially show whether someone has been exposed to the virus, has revealed a lower rate of infection for many frontline workers in New York City.
However, hundreds of health and transit workers, cops, firefighters and EMS responders died over the past three months as the city became the epicenter of the pandemic.
Mayor de Blasio recently came out in support of legislation that would provide line-of-duty death benefits for survivors of municipal employees who die of COVID-19.
A City Hall spokeswoman tweeted out a thank you to Cuomo “for endorsing our plan to provide line of duty benefits to city workers lost to COVID-19.”
“Every day, but particularly on Memorial Day, it’s so important to stop and remember those we’ve lost, and do all we can to support the families they left behind,” de Blasio spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein wrote.
There were no immediate details about Cuomo’s proposal, but a bill being weighed by state lawmakers this week would guarantee the families of uniformed workers, such as cops and firefighters, who died from COVID-19 between March 1 and end of the year would get the fallen first responder’s full pension.
Families of all other public workers who die from COVID get 50% of pension for life, according to the measure. Typically, beneficiaries only get pension benefits for three years.
Cuomo also called on the federal government to step up and provide hazard pay to frontline workers.
“I am calling on the federal government to provide dedicated funding for hazard pay for frontline workers,” he said. “They have earned it by showing up and risking their health and lives for all of us.”
Hospitalizations, admissions and intubations are down across the state, the governor said.
Another 96 New Yorkers died from the virus on Sunday, a slight dip from the 109 killed a day earlier.
Ahead of the briefing, Cuomo held a moment of silence and laid a wreath for service members lost and veterans being honored on Memorial Day.
The governor warned that those taking advantage of the holiday weekend should take basic steps to help prevent the spread of the virus such as maintaining social distancing and wearing a mask.
“You can increase activity without increasing virus spread,” he said. “Be smart. You know, I talk about the masks, and I will talk about the masks until I’m blue in the face because they work.”
Over the weekend, Cuomo announced that campgrounds and RV parks would be allowed to open as the summer gets underway and many regions of upstate are looking forward to entering the second phase of the state’s reopening plan.
A majority of the state, the city excluded, is now in “phase one,” meaning that construction and manufacturing businesses are allowed to operate.
On Friday, Cuomo said the Mid-Hudson and Long Island regions are on track to start the four-phased reopening process “this week.”
The governor declined to provide a date for when he thinks the city will be ready, saying, ” I don’t want to guess … I’m out of that business because we all failed.”
“We watch the numbers, we prepare as the numbers drop so when the number actually hits the threshold, we’re ready to go,” he added.
Cuomo also dashed the hopes of Staten Islanders who argue that since the borough has met the state’s metric for reopening it should be allowed to take steps separately from the rest of the Big Apple.
“I understand the Staten Island mentality. I love Staten Island and I have a lot of friends there,” the governor said. “But it’s not a place unto itself for this purpose.”
The island and its residents are too tied to the rest of the city to separate it out, Cuomo said.
“If you live on Staten Island, you very well may be working in Manhattan, you’re traveling through the New York City area, so Staten Island is part of New York City,” he said. “I get that sometimes every borough would like to secede and be its own place.”
But the governor said he too has had thoughts of secession.
“I understand, sometimes I would like to take the State of New York and secede and not have to deal with the federal government so I get it,” Cuomo added.
With Clayton Guse
Latest coronavirus updates: Click here for our roundup of the most important developments from NYC and around the world.