NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday announced that New York State will soon erect a memorial to honor essential workers who died during the coronavirus pandemic.
At a press conference at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan, the governor said the toughest decision he had to make during the pandemic was when he told all New Yorkers to stay home and be safe, except for essential workers.
“Everyone can stay home and be safe, but not you essential worker. We need you to leave your house, because we need you to keep society stable,” Cuomo said. “That decision weighed on me every day and weighs on me to this day.”
He said it was hard to think of the nurses, doctors and health care professionals who were out running the hospitals and treatment facilities every single day while all other New Yorkers were given the luxury of staying home.
“What gives me the right to ask you to put yourself in harm's way? As governor, that was my responsibility,” Cuomo said. “I can ask you to do it but, I couldn’t tell you to do it. You did it out of your sense of duty and your sense of obligation.”
He says no New Yorker should forget what essential workers did for the community, and that is why the state has created the "Essential Workers Advisory Committee to provide design input and recommendations for a monument in New York City honoring the service and sacrifice of New York's essential workers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.”
"There can be no way to ever fully repay the essential workers who aided in our recovery from this devastating, once-in-a-century pandemic," Cuomo said. "These true heroes continue to aid and inspire us and they have our utmost respect. To honor them, we want to create a monument to stand for all time as New York emerges tougher and stronger than ever."
The Essential Workers Monument will recognize the 17 essential worker groups “whose members continued selflessly serving their fellow New Yorkers during the state's coronavirus pandemic response.”
These groups include: nurses, doctors, hospital staff, teachers, transport workers, police, ambulance/EMT, firefighters, corrections, sanitation, National Guard, store employees, government employees, building service workers, utility workers, delivery drivers and construction/manufacturing.
Cuomo says the advisory committee will help pick a location for the memorial, as well as help design it.
“The memorial says to the essential workers: Thank you, we honor you,” the governor said. “COVID was a war and they were war heroes. They gave their lives in the midst of that war to save others. And that’s what that memorial says.”
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