COVID-19 Digest: March 12

COVID-19 Digest: March 12

March 12, 2020 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

COVID-19 Digest

Thursday, March 12, 2020Tech:NYC’s COVID-19 resource guide is available here. It’s updated daily with the latest info from across the NYC tech sector.Email us at [email protected] with anything you’d like to see included in an upcoming email or with other feedback. Please share this with your networks and encourage your colleagues to sign up here.

The Latest in New York

The latest: NYS bans gatherings of 500+; NYC declares state of emergency; tools to manage COVID-19 related anxiety.Confirmed Cases: 

  • New York State: 328 (+112)

  • New York City: 95 (+43)

General Updates:

  • NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio officially declared a state of emergency in NYC. (NY1)

  • New York State has banned all gatherings of 500 people or more. The state will also require facilities with gatherings under 500 people to reduce capacity by 50 percent. (CNBC) This applies to bars and restaurants. (Twitter)

  • The World Economic Forum and the World Health Organization are launching an emergency coronavirus task force of 200 business leaders. (Business Insider)

  • There were some crazy rumors floating around for a few hours this afternoon that you may have heard; they have been dispelled and let this serve as a reminder to be smart about getting information. One way to do that is to sign up for official NYC updates by texting COVID to 692-692. (Tweet)

  • Several big suspensions, cancellations and closings were announced in the last 24 hours: The Met, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera, Broadway, the NBA, the MLB, the NHL, March Madness, and the U.S. Capitol (partial). No doubt there will be more to come.  

What You Need to Know

NEW EMPLOYER UPDATES (for the full list, see our resource guide):

  • ARTA: offering NYC employees the option to WFH, but will transition to fully remote beginning Monday, March 16th.

  • Artsy: recommending employees in all offices work from home beginning March 14th.

  • Beeswax: strongly encouraging employees to WFH; mandatory WFH for high-risk employees and those in high-risk geographies.

  • Bravely: requiring all employees to WFH until further notice.

  • Business Insider: mandating WFH as of Wednesday, March 11th. 

  • Dashlane: strongly recommending employees to WFH as of Wednesday, March 11th.

  • Digital Currency Group: allowing employees to WFH.

  • Full Picture: requiring all employees to WFH.

  • Justworks: requiring employees to work remotely through Friday, March 20th.

  • Kickstarter: recommending employees WFH, but the office is still open for those who need it.

  • Ladders, Inc.: ran a simulated lockdown on March 5th (more here) and is requiring employees to WFH as of March 10th.

  • Makerbot: encouraging employees to WFH beginning Friday, March 13th.

  • New York Times: encouraging employees to WFH.

  • Noom: requiring all employees WFH and has closed the office until further notice.

  • Oden Technologies: strongly encouraging employees to WFH until Friday, March 20th. 

  • Passbase: requiring all employees to WFH as of March 11th.

  • Pluto: encouraging employees to WFH and reduce business travel as much as is practicable until further notice.

  • Ro: strongly encouraging employees to WFH.

  • SAP: encouraging NYC employees to WFH beginning March 11th.

  • Silicon Valley Bank: moved to WFH for the next two weeks in nearly all global locations.

  • Twitter: moving beyond their earlier guidance of “strongly encouraging work from home” provided on March 2nd and have now informed all employees globally they must work from home.

  • Uber: strongly encouraging employees to WFH until April 6th.

  • Vertoe: optional WFH policy as of March 11th.

  • Via: encouraging WFH across most offices.

  • WeWork: implementing optional WFH for employees and community teams until further notice (community teams will be in touch with their respective tenants with more operational details); cancelling all events globally.

  • Yelp: cancelling and/or postponing all events; prohibiting international business travel and limiting domestic travel to business critical needs; encouraging employees to take meeting over video conference; encouraging SF and NY-based employees to WFH if they prefer; more frequently disinfecting high-traffic office areas.

  • Zola: requiring all offices to WFH until Monday, March 30th. 

  • Request: please let us know if you are instituting mandatory, optional, or other work-from-home policies. Sharing this information is helpful to companies and employees across the NYC ecosystem and can be kept anonymous. 

WORKPLACE TOOLS:

  • Tomas Pueyo: a spreadsheet model to help you calculate risk and impact in deciding when/if to close your office.

  • LifeLabs Learning: a comprehensive guide to transitioning to remote work.

  • Wethos:insights on how they built their fully-remote team.

  • Read: The Do’s and Don'ts of Social Distancing (The Atlantic) 

  • Reminder: Tech:NYC’s COVID-19 resource guide is available here. The guide has a running list of all company policies we know about.

EVENTS:

  • Cancelled: all Brooklyn Public Library events in March. (Details)

  • Postponed: 2020 NYC Computer Science Opportunity Fair.

  • Postponed: Women 2.0’s Women’s Angel Summit. (Details)

  • Postponed: all Brooklyn Navy Yard programming in March. (Details)

  • Going online: Tech Inclusion Global Summit is going completely virtual. (Details)

POLICY UPDATES:

  • The Trump administration has moved to prohibit travel from most European countries to the U.S. by non-U.S. residents. (NYTimes)

  • Lots of elections are coming up and with them, concerns over in-person voting. In New York, State Sen. Biaggi has introduced legislation to allow those concerned about COVID-19 to request an absentee ballot and vote by mail. On the federal-level, Sen. Wyden has introduced legislation to mandate emergency voting by mail. (NY1)

  • Today is the start of the 2020 Census and you can complete your form online, but first you’ll need a code that you receive in the mail later this week. (City & State) See here for more info on the census. (ABNY)

SCHOOLS: 

  • Archdiocese of New York: all elementary system schools will close for one week beginning March 16th. (Twitter)

  • New York Public Schools: two co-located schools in the Bronx were closed following a student’s positive COVID-19 test. (New York Post)

  • NYU: all classes will now be conducted remotely until further notice, and NYU Athletics facilities are closed. (Website)

  • Pace University: in-person classes are suspended at all three campuses and moved to remote learning through March 29th. (Website)

MANAGING YOUR ANXIETY:

When In Doubt

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