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COVID-19 Digest: August 4

COVID-19 Digest: August 4

August 04, 2020 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

COVID-19 Digest

Tuesday, August 4, 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: Rhode Island — first and only Northeastern state — added to NY travel advisory; Tropical Storm Isaias hit NYC, forcing outdoor restaurants to close; NJ cuts indoor capacity guidance by 75 percent; Uber gives employees option to WFH through June 2021. Confirmed Cases:

New York State: 417,589 (+746)
New York City: 226,280 (+316)
Statewide Fatalities: 25,175 (+3)
Daily NYC Infection Rate: 1.0 percent (no change)

General Updates:

Some promising news: there were no new COVID-related deaths announced in NYC for the third straight day. (CNN)
Tropical Storm Isaias swept into NYC today, pausing some of the reopening measures the city has put in place over the last several weeks. (Gothamist) More on that below.
NYC’s health commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, resigned from her position today following a series of disagreements with Mayor de Blasio over the city’s handling of the virus response. (New York Times) Dr. Dave A. Chokshi, who recently held senior roles in the city’s public hospital system, has been appointed as her replacement.
Rhode Island has been added to the travel advisory requiring travelers to New York to quarantine for 14 days. (Newsday) Delaware and Washington DC have been removed. See the full updated list here.
Some important census news: attempts to reach unresponsive households was supposed to continue through October, but now will be required to wrap on September 30, a month earlier than planned. (NPR) NYC still lags eight percentage points behind the national average with a 55 percent response rate. If you haven’t already, complete the census here.

One opportunity: applications are open for Catalyst NYC, NYU Data Future Lab's six-month, equity-free accelerator. Areas of focus include AI/ML, data analytics, cybersecurity, smart cities and mobility, among others. Learn more and apply by August 10 here.One good read: The Mask Slackers of 1918 (New York Times)

Survey

The latest results: What do you think the fall semester should look like?

14.4%: NYC should resume instruction in-person full time
27.5%: NYC should resume instruction with a hybrid model
24.8%: NYC should resume instruction with a hybrid model, but beginning later in the year
33.3%: NYC should resume instruction fully remote

Today’s poll: With COVID-19, the prolonged heat wave, and murder hornets, 2020 has already been quite the doomsday year, so some wind and rain might not have seemed that bad to New Yorkers. While we’ve all been at peak disaster preparedness since March, how did you ready your household for Tropical Storm Isaias?

*|SURVEY: I stocked up on food and essentials.|*
*|SURVEY: I stocked up and physically protected my apartment/house.|*
*|SURVEY: I was already stocked up because of COVID-19 / did nothing additional to prepare for the storm.|*

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

What You Need to Know

Tropical Storm Isaias:

After making landfall late last night in North Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane, Tropical Storm Isaias raced its way up the East Coast today, bringing heavy rain, wind gusts, and some coastal flooding to the tristate area. (CNN) Emergency crews put up barriers in lower Manhattan, which is particularly vulnerable to flooding. (New York Post)
While the eye of the storm moved west, decreasing the amount of rainfall expected in NYC, there was an increased risk of tornadoes, and a tornado watch remains in effect for the city. (CBS New York)
In response to the weather, many of the city’s reopening measures have been suspended:
- All open restaurants were ordered closed, with tables and equipment packed up until tomorrow morning.
- And of course, beaches are closed to swimming today.
- Subway service is limited to underground-only stations and suspending outdoor service until the high winds die down. LIRR and Metro North service is also suspended systemwide until conditions are safe.
- All routes of the NYC Ferry service are suspended until tomorrow morning. Staten Island Ferry service is running every half hour until 11pm.
For many small businesses, the storm couldn’t come at a worse time: NYC restaurants worry it will damage bottom lines even more. (NY1) The concern adds on to already dire news that as much as one-third of the city’s small businesses will never reopen. (New York Times)
But it’s worth remembering: this is just one storm, and we’re moving into a hurricane season that experts expect to be particularly active. (NOAA) And we’ll still be sheltering from COVID-19 through it all in an effort to ensure superstorms don’t become the new super-spreader events. (Curbed NY)
To stay up to date with the latest official city updates, click here.

What to Know: Reopening:

You can now rent a “backyard” on the waterfront at Pier 17. (Time Out New York) The booking fee is just $1, which is then donated to a local civic organization!
In response to new upticks in confirmed cases, New Jersey has reversed its indoor gathering rules, reducing the number of people who can gather at indoor venues from 100 to 25. (NBC News)
City teachers and others protested the NYC Dept. of Education’s school reopening plan yesterday, saying that funding should be directed to improve remote capabilities instead of prepping for in-person classes. (Gothamist)