Essential workers across New York City marked May Day by protesting for better protections and personal protective equipment.

Health care and other essential workers are on the brink of breaking down. With agony in their eyes and their frustrations spelled out on signs, they described weeks of working in unsafe conditions.

“We were unprotected,” said one protester. “We have no face masks or cleaning supplies.”

Workers from Whole Foods, Target, Walmart and Amazon say they have been pushed from being essential workers to front-line workers without proper PPE.

Amazon, responding in a statement said, “While we respect people’s right to express themselves, we object to spreading misinformation and making false claims … We have gone to extreme measures to understand and address this pandemic.”

Across the city, from the governor’s midtown office to Times Square to the Bronx, the message is the same and demands are simple: more PPE, better paid sick leave and enhanced social distancing.

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are imposing a 14-day quarantine on incoming travelers from states with a high transmission rate of the coronavirus.

"We worked really hard to get the viral transmission rate down, and we don't want to see it go up," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. "So we are jointly instituting that travel advisory today."

The travel advisory will apply to states that have an infection rate above 10 cases per 100,000 people, or 10% of the total population testing positive, both on a seven-day rolling average.

As of Wednesday, the states that the travel advisory applies to include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah and Texas.

This story was originally published by Lauren Cook and Mark Sundstrom on WPIX.