YWN regrets to inform you of the sudden petira of Dr. Marvin (Meir) Schick Z”L. He was 85. Dr Schick suffered a massive heart attack on Thursday afternoon at his home in Boro Park, and was Niftar shortly after. His countless Zechusim are impossible to publish in this short article, and books can and will be written of his incredible life of Chesed and support of Mosdos Hatorah. Reb Marvin was the longtime president of Yeshiva and Mesivta Rabbeinu Yaakov Yosef, and was the founder of the prestigious Edison Yeshiva, in Edison NJ. He was incredibly close to Hagaon HaRav Aharon Kotler ZATZAL, the Rosh Yeshiva and founder of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, as well as many other Gedolei Yisroel, through his participation in Chinuch Atzmai and Zeirei Agudas Yisroel.

After two months and more than 10,000 deaths that have made the nation’s nursing homes some of the most terrifying places to be during the coronavirus crisis, most of them still don’t have access to enough tests to help control outbreaks among their frail, elderly residents. Neither the federal government nor the leader in nursing home deaths, New York, has mandated testing for all residents and staff. An industry group says only about a third of the 15,000 nursing homes in the U.S. have ready access to tests that can help isolate the sick and stop the spread. And homes that do manage to get a hold of tests often rely on luck and contacts.

FBI agents raided a business at a warehouse in Lakewood, New Jersey, Wednesday morning. A team of at least two dozen agents wearing face masks descended upon the businesses located on Swarthmore Avenue around 4:30 p.m. but declined to speak to reporters about what they were doing, according to the Asbury Park Press. Photos and video of the visit to the metal warehouse in a light industrial area on Swarthmore Avenue in Lakewood posted by the Lakewood Scoop show Lakewood police vehicles, as well agents wearing masks and FBI windbreakers coming in and out of an area with a sign for Deco Tile. According to NJ.com they were seen carrying out boxes, with some labeled “respirators.” The search warrant was part of an ongoing investigation into businesses selling medical equipment.

As many as 1 million people in New York City may have been exposed to the coronavirus, the city’s health commissioner said Thursday. More than 142,000 people in the city have tested positive for the virus, “but that really is, I think, the tip of the iceberg,” Dr. Oxiris Barbot said. She noted the city is still telling people who suspect they have the virus but aren’t seriously ill that they don’t need to seek a test, so the true number of sick people is unknown. “It wouldn’t surprise me if, at this point in time, we have probably close to 1 million New Yorkers who have been exposed to COVID-19,” she said. Early on in the pandemic, health officials estimated that as many as half of all people in the city would get the virus.

YWN regrets to inform you of the Petira of Hagaon HaRav Mordechai Marcus ZT”L, the Rov of the Beth Medrash Govoha Minyan (Lakewood Minyan) in Flatbush. The Levaya will be held at 11:00AM today in Lakewood, and can be accessed via Zoom meeting ID 87869821149 password 024588. Call in +1 346 248 7799 or +1 646 558 8656 with same meeting ID and password as above. IF YOU HAVE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE NIFTAR, PLEASE NOTIFY YWN Boruch Dayan HaEmmes… (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Thousands of people lined up in just a few moments notice to donate plasma to possibly save the lives of critically ill COVID-19 patients. The testing was arranged by Lakewood Bikur Cholim and held at three locations in Flatbush, one site in Boro Park, and one site in Baltimore. The approval for the testing was given to Lakewood Bikur Cholim late Tuesday afternoon, but with tremendous Siyata Dishmaya, and the help of Hatzolah, Yachad and Shomrim volunteers who worked through the night, the multiple testing sites were Bichasdei Hashem set up. YWN had published a request late Tuesday night looking for people trained in drawing blood to help, and Boruch hashem many people responded and greatly assisted.

Recognizing the heroic efforts of those on the front lines in the war against COVID-19, a New Jersey based company has donated 500 gallons of hand sanitizer for their protection as the virus continues its deadly march across the United States. New Jersey State Police Chaplain Rabbi Abe Friedman presented the hand sanitizer to police at NJSP headquarters in Trenton on April 20th on behalf of Premium Nature which sells all-natural spa and beauty products. Premium Nature sells hand sanitizer and face masks for consumer protection during the pandemic. Rabbi Friedman thanked Premium Nature owners Shulem Iskowitz and Aharon Stefansky, members of Brooklyn’s Jewish community, for their generosity to benefit those who put their lives on the line on a daily basis.

Delta Air Lines, the biggest and most profitable U.S. airline, lost $534 million in the first quarter, a setback that will appear trivial when the full force of the pandemic is revealed in the current quarter. Delta warned Wednesday that revenue during the April-through-June quarter, typically a period of harried travel, will plummet by 90% compared with last year, when there were no government travel restrictions and flights were full. “These are truly unprecedented times for all of us,” CEO Ed Bastian said. Delta is the first U.S. carrier to detail the damage that began to emerge in at the tail end of the first quarter, although United Airlines said Monday that it would record a pretax loss of $2.1 billion, confirming what most had suspected.

Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg will help create a “tracing army” that will help find people infected with the coronavirus and get them into isolation, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday. New York will work on the massive effort with neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut. Wide-scale testing, tracing and isolation are considered crucial to taming the outbreak in the hard-hit New York City region. “It all has to be coordinated. There is no tracing that can work with one jurisdiction,” Cuomo said at his daily briefing. The governor said that “we will literally need thousands” of people to trace the contacts of infected people.

Setting aside their differences for at least an afternoon, President Donald Trump and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo agreed in an Oval Office meeting to work to double coronavirus testing in the hard-hit state over the next few weeks. “We will work together to help them secure additional tests,” Trump said after Tuesday’s meeting.