Cuomo says state will pay death benefits for front-line COVID-19 victims
ALBANY – Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Monday said the state and local governments will pay for the death benefits of families of front-line workers in the state who died from COVID-19 and asked the federal government to pay hazard pay to those who cared for the ill.
In a Memorial Day news conference at the USS Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in Manhattan, the governor said local or state pension funds will pay the benefits for any public employees who worked in the state at the local, county or state level and lost their lives to the pandemic.
Those covered include families of front-line public health care workers, police, fire and emergency service workers and others who "showed up" amid the crisis, Cuomo said.
"There's not a transit worker who drove a bus or conducted a train or a nurse who didn't walk into an emergency room who wasn't scared to death. They knew what we were talking about. It was enough to shut down society," Cuomo told reporters. "I have such respect and esteem for what they did and I want to make sure that we repay that."
Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Cuomo-says-state-will-pay-death-benefits-for-15293284.php
(Albany Times Union)