The MTA has now lost 79 employees to the coronavirus, the agency said Monday.
The staggering death toll — from a city transit workforce of around 55,000 — exceeds that of any other public sector workforce, according to publicly-available counts.
All but one of the late workers come from the agency’s city subway and bus arm. The new toll is up from 68 in the MTA’s previous public count, released just on Friday.
“Every one of those people had a family and a story and a future and that is tragic and we mourn their loss,” MTA Chairman Pat Foye said on MSNBC Sunday night.
On Monday, transit officials said that 5,000 workers previously sidelined due to COVID-19 symptoms or exposure have returned to work, bringing the impact of crew shortages down from 40 percent to 13 percent of trips.
Over 4,000 agency employees remain in quarantine, the agency said. Of the more than 8,500 individuals impacted so far, nearly 72 percent were city bus or subway staff.