COVID-19 Digest: July 23

COVID-19 Digest: July 23

July 23, 2020 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

COVID-19 Digest

Thursday, July 23, 2020As NYC begins reopening, 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: National daily deaths increasing despite declining infection rate; unemployment claims rising as Senate Republicans delay latest relief package; some city pools reopen tomorrow, 15 total by next week; read how Suzy is providing tech tools for NYC students learning remotely in our latest Company to Watch. Confirmed Cases: 

  • New York State: 409,697 (+811)

  • New York City: 222,832 (+388)

  • Statewide Fatalities: 25,081 (+13)

  • Daily NYC Infection Rate: 1.3 percent (+0.1 percent)

General Updates:

  • The number of new infections across the US is still climbing — but not quite as fast as it has been. (Axios) It’s true that the country may be leveling off, but it’s leveling off at a high rate, averaging 66,000 new cases per day. The national death toll surpassed 1,000 for the second day in a row. (New York Daily News)

  • Meanwhile, New York City has sustained a relatively low infection rate and has not experienced a case spike in connection with its staggered reopening. (POLITICO) But infection rates are rising among young adults, and Gov. Cuomo is cautioning against gatherings. (Times Union)

  • The virus is spreading faster than testing labs can handle, and commercial labs are struggling to keep up with demand. (TIME) That difficulty is expected to be exacerbated by the combined demand of the pandemic and the upcoming flu season. (Axios)

  • A bill to protect individual contact tracing data from use by law enforcement has passed New York’s legislature, now pending for Gov. Cuomo to sign into law. (Twitter)

  • After 15 straight weeks of decline, the number of Americans filing for unemployment rose again, with 1.4 million more workers seeking benefits. (New York Daily News) The uptick comes as the weekly $600 benefit through the federal relief package is set to expire, and any federal aid for workers remains uncertain. (POLITICO) 

One good read: Every decision is a risk. Every risk is a decision. (FiveThirtyEight)

Survey

The latest results: Yesterday, NYC hit the one-month mark of outdoor dining being permitted in the city. Have you visited a restaurant for outdoor dining in that month?

  • 17.5%: Yes, I've done outdoor dining once

  • 44.7%: Yes, I've done outdoor dining more than once

  • 37.9%: No, I'm still avoiding restaurants and bars

Today’s poll: Coronavirus testing is more widely available now than ever before, but with the national surge in cases and increasing demand, many places are seeing increasing delays for test results. Which of the following testing descriptions most applies to you?

  • *|SURVEY: I have had a COVID test|*

  • *|SURVEY: I have had an antibody test|*

  • *|SURVEY: I have had both a COVID and antibody test|*

  • *|SURVEY: I have had neither test|*

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

What You Need to Know

What to Know: Reopening:

  • Eight city pools will open tomorrow, with at least one in each borough. (New York Daily News) Social distancing and capacity limits will be enforced. Seven more pools will be reopened next week.

  • All customers and employees must wear a face covering while on Amtrak trains or thruway buses. (New York Post) Those that refuse may be banned from future travel.

Related reading:

  • Reopening schools is way harder than it should be. So is leaving them closed. Now what do we do? (New York Times)

  • Can restaurants survive shutting down again? (Eater NY)

  • Brooklyn animation studio will bring virtual fans to empty baseball stadiums (Crain’s NY)

What to Know: Return-to-Office:

  • In the new age of remote work, people under 30 might finally kill email (Fast Company)

  • One implication of WFH: New York taxes will stalk you even if you fled during the pandemic (Bloomberg)

One Company to Watch:

SUZY

What does your company do?

Suzy founder and CEO Matt Britton: Suzy is a real-time market research platform that combines advanced research tools with the highest quality audience to deliver trusted insights in minutes. Some of the biggest brands in the world use Suzy to deliver breakthrough products and experiences backed by data-driven decisions.

Together with Percent Pledge, you launched #NYTechCares, an initiative to support tech-related COVID-19 efforts in the city. How did you get the initiative off the ground and what are some of the projects it has taken on?

MB:  I was reading this article about how many local kids still didn’t have the right hardware for virtual education, and I realized that there were newly remote companies like Suzy all across NYC with closets full of working laptops not being used. Rather than let them sit there collecting dust, we went right into action. We’d already been talking to Percent Pledge about creating ways for our employees to donate to various charities, so we brought our idea there first. From there, we contacted other companies in our network — great New York companies like Via and Knotel — to see who’d be interested in coming on as “founding partners.” As you can imagine, that part was easy — they all said yes!

Request: please let us know as your return-to-office policies are developed and what considerations your companies are taking for developing them. Sharing this information is helpful to companies and employees across the NYC ecosystem and can be kept anonymous.

Reminder: Tech:NYC’s resource guide is now available here and contains a comprehensive list of return-to-office plans published in previous digests.

Recruit: A tech talent and job opportunities board from Tech:NYC and AlleyCorp compiles NYC tech workers looking for new roles and NYC-based tech companies hiring open positions. To contribute to the board, click here.

Events:

  • July 29: Virtual: VC Perspectives: the State of Early-Stage Startup Ecosystems, with Human Ventures, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, and Betaworks. Hosted by Day One and The New Company. (Details)

  • July 30: Virtual: The Pandemic’s Impact on Transportation Projects Throughout the City, with Port Authority executive director Rick Cotton, Regional Plan Association CEO Tom Wright, and more. Hosted by Crain’s New York Business. (Details)

  • July 31: Virtual: Design Mentor Workshop, with Carbon Five senior designers. Hosted by Carbon Five. (Details)

  • August 14: Virtual: TechDay Founders Summit, with presentations from Google, Techstars, Justworks, IBM, AWS, and more. Hosted by TechDay. Use code FSPARTNER10 for 10% off. (Details)

When In Doubt

Check these sources for verified information from government agencies and public health authorities:

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