Queens College announced March 30 that Frank Wu will serve as its 11th president, following his appointment by The City University of New York’s Board of Trustees, effective July 1.

“I am honored to be coming to Queens College, a campus that represents education as the engine of the American dream for individuals and families now more than ever,” Wu said in a prepared statement. “I am here because my parents were immigrants who came as students. That opportunity must continue to be offered and expanded.” Read more

The death toll among Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers rose drastically to a total of eight by Tuesday morning, less than a week after the agency announced its first casualty.

On Monday afternoon, the MTA announced the deaths of Scott Elijah, Caridad Santiago, Ernesto Hernandez, Victor Zapana and Warren Tucker — five transit workers who showed symptoms of COVID-19. The announcement was shortly followed by the death of Patrick Patoir, which was reported by Transit Workers Union Local 100. Read more

The Army Corps of Engineers will be constructing a temporary 1,000-bed hospital facility on the grounds of Aqueduct Raceway in South Ozone Park.

Speaking at a news update on Saturday, Gov. Cuomo, fresh off a phone call with President Trump, announced that the site is one of four that will see a hospital erected in each of the city’s outer boroughs. Read more

Banks across the city are temporarily closing the interior of select branches in an effort to decrease close contact between their patrons and workers to slow the spread of COVID-19.

“We’re only open for drive-through and ATM services,” said a Queens County Savings Bank teller at the Kew Gardens location, one of the few to shut down its inside operations. Some of the bank’s branches, mostly supermarket branch locations, have closed altogether, but have kept ATMs open to ensure that customers have the ability to access cash during the pandemic. Read more

District Attorney Melinda Katz is feeling “OK” after learning last Saturday that she tested positive for the coronavirus.

“I feel like I’m lucky to have my kids to be quarantined with and I get to do school with them every morning and run the office,” she told the Chronicle Tuesday. Read more

As a result of the economic strain caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, more than 32 percent of New York City’s food pantries have closed down. As unemployment jumps and is expected to do so for an indefinite number of coming weeks, the pantry system is calling for the city and state governments to commit $50 million in emergency aid to make sure New Yorkers don’t go hungry.

“We definitely expect this to continue,” Jilly Stephens told the Chronicle. The CEO of City Harvest, the city’s largest food rescue organization, said that as of March 31, 71 food pantries in the city had closed their doors, a number she says will only continue to rise. Read more

Joseph Lewinger, better known by The Mary Louis Academy community and his beloved students as “J-Lew,” passed away due to complications from COVID-19 late on the night of March 28. He had no pre-existing conditions that would have left him vulnerable to the virus, and was 42 years old.

The assistant principal of Student Life, athletic director and former teacher became the high school’s second victim of the pandemic, following basketball coach Dave Edwards, who died just a few days before. Read more

Trans activist Lorena Borjas, 59, died Monday morning from COVID-19. The news was announced on Twitter by fellow activist Cecilia Gentili, who called Borjas the “mother of the Trans latinx community of Queens.”

She came to the United States from Mexico in 1981, looking for a hormones specialist in order to make her transition. Read more

The NYPD is asking that people help stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus by obtaining needed motor vehicle accident reports online rather than visiting the precinct in which the accident occurred.

The reports are available on the NYPD website at collisionreport.nypdonline.org. Those taken after Sept. 30, 2016 are posted on the site. Read more

Social Security and its Office of the Inspector General continue to receive reports about fraudulent phone calls from people claiming to be Social Security employees.

These scammers try to trick people into providing personal information or money, and often threaten their victims with arrest. Don’t be fooled. Read more