In addition to celebrations on the streets, roughly 2,000 churches around the city hold Easter Sunday services, the most famous of them all being  at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

But this year, with COVID-19 ravaging New York, the now epicenter of the world’s coronavirus outbreak, there was no parade, no services, nothing that would reflect a celebration.

This is Easter Sunday in New York City during COVID-19.

A person wearing a protective suit walks down Park Avenue and past Christ Church, April 12, 2020. Photo by Thomas Hengge

A person wearing bunny ears passes by a closed down church, April 12, 2020. Photo by Thomas Hengge

A man wearing a crown of thorns and various religious signifiers near Radio City Music Hall, April 12, 2020. Photo by Thomas Hengge

A person stands outside a closed St. Patrick’s Cathedral, April 12, 2020. Photo by Thomas Hegge.

Flowers sit outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral, April 12, 2020. Photo by Thomas Hengge

A sign outside St. Bart’s Church offers information regarding livestream services, April 12, 2020. Photo by Thomas Hengge

A virtually empty 5th Avenue where the annual NYC Easter Bonnet Parade was to take place, April 12, 2020. Photo by Thomas Hengge

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“We have to go back to work. Our people want to go back to work,” Trump said during a Fox News coronavirus virtual town hall in the Rose Garden today. 

Despite medical experts stating that this could further spread the virus, Trump believes his timeline would work. 

“I think it’s possible, why isn’t it? I mean, we’ve never closed the country before and we’ve had some pretty bad [flus] and we’ve had some pretty bad viruses,” he said.

Trump said it would be possible to reopen the country this quickly if all the current precautions of social-distancing, handwashing and limited work interactions continued to be practiced once most people head back to work.

Trump was joined by Vice President Mike Pence and two other  members of the coronavirus taskforce, Dr. Deborah Birx and Surgeon General Jerome Adams in what has become a daily address to the nation regarding the Administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic that has sickened over 399,500 people in 166 countries with 17,902 reported fatalities. 

Some medical experts and high ranking republicans were quick to voice their disagreement to allowing millions of people to return to the workforce in two weeks while the pace of infection was rapidly increasing nationwide.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, offered caution in reaching for a fixed time to loosen restrictions regarding social-distancing.

 “You can look at a date but you’ve got to be very flexible .. and evaluate the feasibility of what you’re trying to do,’ he said  during today’s press briefing. 

Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming,  a House Republican leader,  warned that trying to jumpstart the economy again too soon could prove disastrous, overwhelming an already stretched healthcare system with overcrowding at hospitals and overworked healthcare workers.

There will be no normally functioning economy if our hospitals are overwhelmed and thousands of Americans of all ages, including our doctors and nurses, lay dying because we have failed to do what’s necessary to stop the virus. https://t.co/AchwfXtuLi

— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) March 24, 2020

Meanwhile in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo expressed his frustration with the Trump administration for sending only 400 ventilators to New York, the current epicenter of the disease, when the state needs thousands right away. Dr. Birx confirmed that 60 percent of all new cases were now originating in New York City  and recommends anyone who has visited the metro area recently to immediately self-quarantine for 14 days. 

The US currently has almost 50,000 people who have tested positive for the disease with half of that amount in New York State alone. Nationwide, 615 deaths have resulted from the respiratory complications caused  by the virus.

Medical personnel, delivery persons and food suppliers are the only ones encouraged to go to work. While many people have lost or are about to lose their jobs, health experts say this ongoing limited interaction is the only way to “flatten the curve”  of the disease so  not to overwhelm healthcare resources.

But President Trump thinks the country can do both – get back to work and flatten the curve by practicing the White House-issued 15-day guidelines to slow the spread of the disease which include aggressive hand washing and not shaking hands.

Mike Pence said at no point did  the task force consider a nationwide lockdown or a federal stay-at-home order as is currently being enforced by governors. President Trump agreed that a prolonged lockdown is not economically viable, that the “country is not built to be shut down” and “many, many people” agree with him to restart the economy back up as soon as possible.

When asked about the risk of reopening the economy so soon and the potential harm people may suffer as a result, Trump alluded to potential suicide rates climbing if he doesn’t do so.

“Many more people will die if we allow this to continue,” he said. “If we delay this thing out, you’re going to lose more people than you’re losing with the situation as you know it [now].”

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Yet religion was not a requirement to come out and celebrate.

“I’m not Catholic,” said Jill Macklem of Greenwich Village, Manhattan, who wore a straw hat trimmed in tulips. “It’s a day of community and everyone’s coming out and being part of it.”

Beth Tallman of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, represented her borough by sporting locally inspired headgear. “Our neighbors raise chickens, so we decided that we’d take the chicken theme to a whole new level and be the Bed Stuy Peeps,” she said.

Parade goers put on hats to promote a number of causes, including animal cruelty, same sex marriage and workers’ rights.

Moved by a recent wave of protests in the Midwest, Brian Griffin of Astoria, Queens, decorated his tall, vertical creation with labor speak slogans.

“In support of unions in Wisconsin, I made a hat that said New York is pro-collective bunnying,” he said. “United we bargain, divided we beg.”

Still, most came out to embrace the wacky, the quirky and a sense of camaraderie.

“I stumbled on the Easter parade several years ago,” said Mike Revenaugh of Astoria, Queens, who wore a motorized Ferris wheel head dress he built out of K’Nex toys and glue. “I saw it was a bunch of people making their own silly hats and that’s kind of right up my alley.”

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