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Gov. Cuomo Demands New Standards of Cleanliness, Safety for NYC Subways

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo addresses rising crime and unsanitary conditions in New York City's subways, still the primary way to get to and from JFK and LaGuardia

April 28, 2020

In his daily Covid-19 press conference on April 29, Governor Andrew Cuomo addressed the increasingly dangerous and unsanitary conditions in the New York City subways, still the primary way that existing air travelers can get back and forth from JFK and LaGuardia airports.

Cuomo cited recent photos of the city’s subways published in the New York Daily News ​which show scores of homeless filling the seats as well as refuse throughout the car.

He also cited new statistics that show that even though ridership is down 90 percent, crime as actually increased.

Cuomo called for daily sanitizing of all subways cars and reiterated his demands that homeless populations find shelter in alternative accommodations such as the city’s Covid-19 repurposing of hotels now used to house either first responders such as health care workers or homeless people or people who can not isolate safely at home.

Business Traveler USA reached out to the American Hotel and Lodging Association, which is helping to administer a new Covid-19 conversation program to ask if there was mixing of these populations within city hotels designated for use. They stated that according to Health and Human Services mandates, at no time are symptomatic people sheltered in the same hotels or facilities as asymptomatic first responders. ​​