The New York State and New York City (NYC) departments of health said Friday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have identified polioviruses from sewage samples in the largest city of the United States, suggesting likely local circulation of the virus. State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett said in a press release that the finding "is alarming, but not surprising," since a case of paralytic polio was reported on July 21 in neighboring Rockland County and poliovirus was detected in wastewater samples collected in May, June and July from Rockland and Orange Counties. Politico reported that local health officials had been testing wastewater to track the spread of COVID-19. The wastewater surveillance checked samples from June and July for polio and found six positive samples. Assessing the level of community spread based on the collected samples can be difficult, Denis Nash, a professor of epidemiology at CUNY's Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health, told Politico, adding it was unclear how many facilities those samples came from, or what concentration of the poliovirus was detected in each. Polio, or poliomyelitis, a disabling and life-threatening disease caused by the poliovirus, spreads from person to person and can infect a person's spinal cord, causing paralysis. Read: Pakistani PM kicks off nationwide anti-polio campaign as new cases emerge The CDC's data showed that one in 25 infected people can get viral meningitis and about one in 200 will become paralyzed. While there is no cure for polio, it is preventable by vaccine. Health officials on Friday urged local residents to get vaccinated against polio, noting the risk to New Yorkers was real but the defense through safe and effective immunization was simple and effective. "With polio circulating in our communities there is simply nothing more essential than vaccinating our children to protect them from this virus, and if you're an unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated adult, please choose now to get the vaccine. Polio is entirely preventable and its reappearance should be a call to action for all of us," New York City's Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan said in the press release. Mayor Eric Adams also told local PIX11 news channel that New Yorkers should not take the illness lightly. "We thought that this was behind us many years ago, and polio is a serious illness that we have to take seriously," he said, adding that the solution to the challenging problem is vaccination. Polio was once one of the most feared diseases in the United States in the early 1950s, when polio vaccines were unavailable and polio outbreaks caused more than 15,000 cases of paralysis each year. Following the introduction of vaccines -- trivalent inactivated poliovirus vaccine in 1955 and trivalent oral poliovirus vaccine in 1963, the number of polio cases fell rapidly to less than 100 in the 1960s and fewer than 10 in the 1970s. The last case of polio in the United States before the one in Rockland County was in 2013. However, the vaccine coverage for routinely recommended vaccines has fallen among children in New York City since 2019, putting residents at risk and devastating complications of vaccine preventable diseases. Friday's detection underscored the urgency of every adult, including pregnant New Yorkers, and children to stay up to date with the polio immunization schedule, particularly those in the greater New York metropolitan area, the health officials said. "Only 86.2 percent of NYC children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years old have received 3 doses of the polio vaccine -- nearly 14 percent remain not fully protected. Of particular concern are neighborhoods where coverage of children aged six-months to five-years-old with three doses of polio vaccine is less than 70 percent, putting these children at risk of contracting polio," the press release read. As of August 1, it noted, Rockland County and Orange County had a polio vaccination rate of 60.34 percent and 58.68 percent respectively, compared to the statewide average of 78.96 percent, among children who have received three polio immunizations before their second birthday.

Five people were shot Tuesday morning at a subway station in Brooklyn, New York, law enforcement sources said. Fire personnel responding to reports of smoke at the 36th Street station in the Sunset Park neighborhood found multiple people shot and undetonated devices, a New York City Fire Department spokesperson said. According to multiple law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation, preliminary information indicated a suspect was wearing a construction vest and a gas mask. READ: Police: Officer, 2 women shot by man who exchanged gunfire A photo from the scene showed people tending to bloodied passengers lying on the floor of the station. Further details were not immediately available. Trains servicing that station were delayed during the morning rush hour. New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ office did not immediately have more details. Adams was at the mayor’s residence Tuesday morning.

Several thousand New York City public workers could lose their jobs Friday if they don’t show they’ve complied with the city’s mandate requiring they receive at least two shots of the COVID-19 vaccine. Though they represent about 1% of the 370,000-person city workforce, including teachers, firefighters and police officers, the mass firings will mark a new line in the sand for the nation’s largest city, which has imposed some of the most sweeping vaccine mandates in the country. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, speaking about the looming firings at a news conference last week, noted that city workers largely complied with the mandate. “Living in a city as complex like this, there must be rules. We must follow them. The rule is to get vaccinated if you’re a city employee. You have to follow that,” the Democrat said. The mandate imposed last year under the former Mayor Bill de Blasio required most city workers to get a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of October or be placed on unpaid leave. New workers who started their jobs after Aug. 2 were likewise required to comply and show that they’ve received their shots. There were up to 4,000 workers who had failed to comply by of the end of January, according to City Hall, but that number has dropped as more workers have started to comply or produce their vaccine cards since they were notified last week that they would be fired. City officials said they won’t know exactly how many workers are fired until after the deadline passes. For most workers, that’s the end of their workday on Friday. A coalition of unions representing different parts of the city workforce sued to block the mass firings. But a judge late Thursday afternoon ruled in favor of the city. A group of city Department of Education employees had a request for their appeal to be considered by the Supreme Court dismissed on Friday. Some unions separately struck deals with the city to allow some workers to choose to remain on unpaid leave until this summer or fall. But not all union members took advantage of those deals. The United Federation of Teachers, which represents New York City public school teachers, had negotiated with the city school district to allow members to choose to stay on unpaid leave until September 5. READ: US donates another 10mn doses of Pfizer to Bangladesh But the union said 700 of its members who have been on unpaid leave for months opted not to extend their leave or provide proof of vaccine and had been notified they’d be fired. The union joined others in fighting the mass firings, contending that workers deserved due process that involved a hearing before being dismissed. Police Benevolent Association, the city’s largest police union, said less than 50 of its members had received notices they faced termination. Across the entire city workforce, up to 3,000 employees failed to meet an end of October deadline and have been on unpaid leave for months, according to the city. There are additionally up to 1,000 new employees, who started work after Aug. 2, who face termination because they have not shown proof of having received two shots.

The life sketch of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is now being screened at Times Square of New York.It will continue until August 16.Bangabandhu’s digital portrait will also be screened for 720 times at the square, a major commercial intersection, tourist destination and entertainment centre in the neighbourhood of the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City.  Also read: ‘Want Bangabandhu's killers to be deported to Bangladesh’: FM Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen thanked Bangladeshi expatriate Fahim Feroj who has taken the initiative. Through his NY Dreams Production, a New York-based organisation, Fahim has taken the initiative to showcase Bangabandhu, his great political work and sacrifice in the international platform, marking the National Mourning Day. Also read: Inspired to protect the values Bangabandhu stood for: India EXIM Bank and Bangladesh Finance came forward to help him implement it.Dr Momen said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is likely to visit New York next month to attend the UNGA and it is a good initiative ahead of her visit.He said the government is trying to brand Bangladesh positively as it is now a land of opportunity with its vibrant economy.

A giant, yellow ‘Black Lives Matter’ mural was painted Thursday on New York City's Fifth Avenue right in front of Trump Tower, a skyscraper that serves as the headquarters for the Trump Organisation.

The New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade has been postponed for the first time in its 258-year history because of coronavirus concerns, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Wednesday.