New York on
Wednesday honored its everyday “heroes”, who kept the city on its
feet and saw through the COVID-19 pandemic, through a parade at a place
normally reserved for dignitaries and Astronauts.

Hundreds of
essential workers marched down the southern stretch of Broadway in Manhattan
known as the “Canyon of Heroes,” where parades honoring astronauts,
heads of state and sports champions have occurred since the 19th century.

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Nurse
Sandra Lindsay, who became the first person in the United States to receive a COVID-19
vaccine shot in December, was leading the parade from the back of a limousine.

Between
marching bands and under confetti, groups of doctors, caregivers, delivery men,
public transport workers and food bank employees and others marched as
onlookers cheered and held placards that read “Thank you.”

“It’s
a trauma we’ve all kind of gone through. It really hits home the fact that now
we’re coming back out of this and reemerging, we’ve made it. It feels just very
good to celebrate,” one of the residents who turned up to watch was quoted
as saying by AFP.

New York
paid a heavy price in the pandemic, losing 33,000 residents.

Another resident said that she still remembers “the trucks that were mobile
morgues” in spring 2020, when New York was the epicenter of the country’s
outbreak.

“It
was very heavy for a lot of us,” she recalled.

Many
residents of a city still traumatized turned out to show their gratitude to
those that kept the Big Apple running through one of its darkest times.

“These
unrecognized everyday workers literally saved our lives,” said another
attendee, holding a sign calling for better wages and benefits for those who
kept working during the lockdowns.

“It’s
a very happy moment, because from all of their efforts and the vaccine, we’re
here, we’re here to celebrate this. But never forget these people that took the
subways when it was dangerous, all the pre-vax work that these people did for
us.”

Inside the
barriers, the marchers carried placards bearing their demands.

“More
nurses = better care,” read that of caregivers, “Stop the Fines”
said those carried by street food vendors, while subway workers called for risk
pay.