'It doesn't feel worth it': Covid-19 is pushing New York's EMTs to the brink

Struggling with low pay and high stress, New York paramedics and emergency medical technicians are reaching a breaking point

• Lost on the frontline: the healthcare workers who died of Covid-19

In his 17 years as an emergency medical provider, Anthony Almojera thought he had seen it all. Shootings, stabbings, people on fire, you name it," he said. Then came Covid-19.

Before the pandemic, Almojera said it was normal to respond to one or two cardiac arrest calls a week; now he's grown used to several each shift. One day last spring, responders took more than 6,500 calls - more than any day in his department's history, including 9/11.