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COVID-19 Digest: August 12

COVID-19 Digest: August 12

August 12, 2020 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

COVID-19 Digest

Wednesday, August 12, 2020As NYC’s reopening and recovery efforts continue, the digest will focus on the resources that help you make decisions about your businesses and your lives as New Yorkers.

Below and in our resource guide, you’ll find the latest information on government resources for businesses, city and state reopening measures, and return-to-office preparedness plans. If this can be useful to your colleagues and network, encourage them to sign up here.

The Latest in New York

The latest: Biden picks Sen. Kamala Harris as his running-mate; UK suffers worst GDP shrink in history; NY weddings no longer subject to 50 attendee cap; the MTA wants iPhone users to unlock devices without removing masks.Confirmed Cases:

New York State: 422,703 (+700)
New York City: 228,729 (+386)
Statewide Fatalities: 25,218 (+7)
Daily NYC Infection Rate: 0.8 percent (-0.1 percent)

General Updates:

In case you've been under a quarantined PTO rock in the last 24 hours (which we recommend, by the way!) Sen. Kamala Harris will be the vice presidential nominee on the Democratic ticket. (New York Times)
For the fourth straight day, every region of New York has reported an infection rate of one percent or lower. (NY State of Politics)
There has been no progress this week in negotiations with Congress over another stimulus package. (New York Times) Federal funding for state and local governments remains the issue with the most disagreement, according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Without more federal support, states have warned that deep spending cuts will be inevitable and pose a headwind to the overall U.S. economic recovery. (Wall Street Journal)
Across the pond, Britain’s economy has sunk to its deepest recession on record, with official data showing its GDP has dropped 20.4 percent between April and June. (New York Times) The decline is more than double that of the US, which saw a 9.5 percent drop in the same time period.
And a new study of the effectiveness of different types of face masks finds there’s one type that’s worse than no mask at all (spoiler: it’s a neck fleece, most often worn by runners). Get the other rankings here. (Gothamist)

One good read: New York City Could Use A Champion. Who Will Step Up? (New York Times)One reason to love New York: Digital sketches of a city as it reemerges from its protective cocoon (The New Yorker)

Survey

The latest results: Do you know a friend or family member who has tested positive for COVID-19?

88.2%: Yes
11.8%: No

Today’s poll: Since March, NYC 311 dispatchers have logged more than 70,000 complaints about people disobeying face covering and social distancing rules. And as the pandemic continues, mask fatigue and the hot weather could be making compliance worse. What have you noticed since Gov. Cuomo issued a mask mandate in mid-April?

*|SURVEY: I am seeing more mask compliance now|*
*|SURVEY: I am seeing less mask compliance now|*
*|SURVEY: I am seeing the same mask compliance now|*

Find the poll results from all previous editions of this newsletter here.

What You Need to Know

What to Know: Reopening:

The MTA is asking Apple to help devise a better way for iPhone users to unlock their phones without taking off their masks, as it seeks to guard against coronavirus spread in buses and subways. (ABC News)
A federal judge ruled that wedding receptions in New York may be held at 50 percent venue capacity and are no longer required to be capped at 50 guests. (Times Union)
Public schools in NYC are hoping to make use of street space and parks to provide safer in-person instruction in the fall, but many were told they would have to wait until October for the approval, a month after the semester is set to begin. (THE CITY)
In sports news: Pac-12 joins the Big Ten in postponing all fall sports to the spring, which means no football, cross country, volleyball, soccer, or field hockey. (New York Times) The ACC and SEC both said they have not altered their plans to play this fall. (ESPN)