NYCHA Coronavirus Deaths Could Have Been Prevented, Pols Say

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — Anger. Outrage. Beyond reprehensible. Preventable deaths.

Those are the words Brooklyn officials used Monday to describe recently-released numbers showing 1,241 NYCHA residents died from the new coronavirus.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and city Councilman Robert Cornegy, Jr. stood in the wind outside Marcy Houses — where a city-topping 21 residents died — to press for immediate action.

"We are outraged, but not surprised," Adams said.

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Adams called himself not surprised because of a long-standing lack of services for NYCHA residents that fed into high levels of pre-existing conditions that go hand-in-hand with coronavirus deaths.

Even worse, he said it should have been obvious to state officials that the new coronavirus could spread through NYCHA homes.

What troubles him is that while people exposed to an early coronavirus case in Westchester received word about their exposure, it appears no such level of attention has been made in NYCHA homes, he said.

"If NYCHA can tell tenants if bills are due, they can tell tenants if someone is exposed in the building that they live in," he said.

Adams said he believed at least some deaths in Marcy Houses could have been prevented if officials acted sooner.

Cornegy, who himself battled coronavirus, held up a letter Brooklyn officials sent Gov. Andrew Cuomo weeks ago calling for attention on NYCHA homes.

"It seems to me there is less attention being paid to those residents over and over and over," he said.

Adams and Cornegy called for immediate action on testing and contact tracing within NYCHA projects to track, slow and eventually stop the virus' spread.

Another elected official, city Councilwoman Alicka Ampry-Samuel, reacted to the Marcy Houses death numbers on Facebook.

"I continue to be angry as a result of the way our communities have been ignored, left to suffer and die but I’m not surprised," she wrote. "The numbers just reveal a story we’ve tried to tell for months/years."

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