It’s been nearly six years since Priscilla Carrow lost her battle with COVID-19 in 2020.

“Pricilla Carrow, who worked at Elmhurst Hospital, one of the top administrators there, lost her life,” said the Rev. Patrick H. Young of First Baptist Church in East Elmhurst, Queens. “She was a member of this church. Very active, not just in this church but in our community.”

She was a mother, a grandmother, a community activist and a longtime member of First Baptist Church.

What You Need To Know

It’s been six years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic

Elected officials gathered in East Elmhurst to announce a plan to better prepare for the next pandemic

The plan includes proposals to increase local health care workers and build a health clinic in East Elmhurst

 

Carrow also worked as a coordinating manager at Elmhurst Hospital, where she caught the virus. She was set to retire later that year.

Images of body bags in the freezer trucks parked there went viral during the pandemic.

Six years since New York City and country shut down, First Baptist pastor, Patrick Young, is thinking of Carrow and other parishioners who died from COVID-19, which he called a devastating blow to the community.

“Mentally and physically, and spiritually,” Young said.

“Six years later, our communities are still asking, ‘Are we better prepared for the next public health emergency than we were before?’” Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas asked during a press conference at First Baptist Church on Friday.

Young and others said they do not believe so, which is why he joined González-Rojas and other local leaders to unveil a five-point plan for Western Queens.

It includes proposals to increase the number of local health care workers and build a health clinic in East Elmhurst. “

The crisis we’ve seen with COVID in our district, in my district with Elmhurst Hospital,” City Councilmember Shekar Krishnan said. “It was because of decades of disinvestment.”

While he supports the plan, Young said he isn’t waiting for lawmakers to deliver. He said the church has continued to build upon COVID-inspired community and public health initiatives.

They include the church’s mental health counseling, with free services offered for 12 weeks.

The initiative also includes the church’s food pantry, which served a few thousand families weekly during COVID-19, continues to feed about 1,000 a week now with help from church members like Laquan Edwards, also known as Q.

On the sixth anniversary of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he’s thinking of his uncle, who also succumb complications from the virus.

“He took me to my first Yankee game ever. Watching the Knicks and the Yankees, it hits me,” Edwards said. “It does feel like I just lost him.”