Shortly after noon yesterday, Rusty Zimmerman, a 40-year-old artist living in Crown Heights, went to a CityMD on Fulton Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant. After he arrived, fellow patients started spilling into the waiting room and social distancing became less and less possible, he said. A CityMD staff member told him that the care center was short-handed. He waited for almost two hours before receiving a blood draw. More →

HNRY FLWR was breaking onto the Brooklyn scene just before the coronavirus pandemic shut the city down. Now the band, fronted by singer-songwriter David Van Witt, is keeping the music alive with a new video, “Waiting Room.” More →

When New York had its first confirmed coronavirus case on March 1, I sensed a hint of unease among my Chinese friends. When universities moved classes online one after another, discussions of flying back to China started appearing in WeChat groups. I was quickly added to two group chats where people from both China and the US shared daily flight information. On a family video chat, I mentioned it to my mom. By that time, she had stayed home in Jinan, my home city in eastern China, for over two months. More →

Imagine going on a blind date onstage in front of hundreds of strangers. The audience provides you topics, interjects, or perhaps even pitches a crowd member as the more ideal date. More →

(Photos courtesy of Rafael Espinal)

When Rafael Espinal abruptly resigned his post as City Council member in January, there were many questions among his Brooklyn constituents about the charismatic politician’s unexpected decision to take a job as head of the Freelancers Union. The change of career came at a peculiar time, as the coronavirus made its way to the US in a more severe way than anyone expected. But now Espinal finds himself on the frontlines of the fight, buried in Zoom calls, phone calls, Skype calls, and virtual town halls, doing what he can to support freelancers who are losing work as the coronavirus shutdown continues. More →

The Japanese dish known as Jingisukan, or Genghis Khan, takes its name from the legend that Mongol warriors cooked lamb over their helmets. At Dr. Clark, a new Hokkaido-inspired restaurant in Chinatown, the plan was for diners to cook their marinated lamb and vegetables at their tables, using cast-iron skillets resembling Genghis Khan’s helmet. But when the coronavirus shutdown scuttled the restaurant’s March 15 opening, the operators had to shelve the armored skillets and come up with another plan of attack. More →

Call New York’s COVID-19 hotline, suggested by the state Department of Health’s website as the way to get tested, and you might be told that people with mild symptoms should monitor their condition at home and, if it worsens, contact a healthcare provider for further suggestions.  More →

During quarantine, Faten Gaddes doesn’t just use cleaning products to disinfect her home—she poses next to them. In her upcoming series “Postcards from Home,” the Tunisian photographer puts her own twists on the iconic “Keep Calm” posters, evoking irony and humor from life indoors under coronavirus. More →

Even with Mayor de Blasio announcing this week that New York City concerts will be canceled through June, Mark Kleback is opening a theme park — and is hosting rock shows in it. But there’s no need to panic: It’s going to be virtual, and interactive. More →