News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Sat. March 28, 2020: A second Caribbean immigrant in New York City has succumbed to COVID-19 as the city’s death toll reached 606 this morning.
Dead is Guyana-born Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) bus operator Oliver Cyrus, 61, died from complications related to the virus, according to reports from the New York Daily News.
Cyrus, 61, worked for the MTA for 21 years. The Brooklyn resident and TWU Local 100 member drove buses for the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority, a subsidiary of the MTA that operates a handful of express and local bus routes. He worked out of Manhattanville bus depot in West Harlem, according to the paper.
Cyrus’ death was reported hours after the MTA confirmed longtime subway conductor Peter Petrassi, 49, died from the disease.
MTA head of buses Craig Cipriano said Cyrus was “loved by his friends and colleagues.”
“The men and women of New York City Transit are doing incredible work, going above and beyond the call of duty as they have done in the past,” Cipriano told the Daily News.
“My heart goes out to Brother Cyrus’ faily and all his co-workers at Manhattanville Depot. Transit workers, Police, Firefighters, EMS and health care workers and other essential public employees have put themselves into harm’s way for the great good of our City and our society. They are true heroes,” said Tony Utano, the union’s president.
His death comes on the heels of the death of Trinidadian national and Brooklyn school’s principal, Dez-Ann Romain who also succumbed to the virus this week.
