In February, whispers of a deadly virus began to intensify. By March, the whispers had become a crescendo, the only thing anyone could hear. Coronavirus infiltrated the city and suddenly, within days, New York became the nation’s epicenter of the viral pandemic. Emergency tents popped up in Central Park, a Navy hospital ship docked at Pier 90, and refrigerated trucks parked outside hospitals.
This year’s NYCityLens team began covering the city in January, eager to report on the five boroughs and tell their stories. In time, it turned out there would be just one story—the Coronavirus pandemic. Here’s how the story of a city under siege unfolded.