Tech:NYC Newsletter
Posts
COVID-19 Digest: October 1

COVID-19 Digest: October 1

October 01, 2020 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

COVID-19 Digest

Thursday, October 1, 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: New York State and Tech:NYC, with support from tech companies and research partners, launch exposure notification app COVID Alert NY; Moderna vaccine not widely available until spring 2021, says CEO; middle and high schools reopen today, making NYC the first major US school district to have all buildings open; Empire State Digital initiative to help SMBs scale their businesses online.Confirmed Cases:

New York State: 460,031 (+1,382)
New York City: 244,574 (+533)
Statewide Fatalities: 25,490 (+11)
Daily NYC Infection Rate: 1.3 percent (no change)

General Updates:

COVID Alert NY, a new exposure notification app for New Yorkers, launched today. Built by the Dept. of Health and Tech:NYC, together with some of New York’s leading tech companies and researchers, it is a critical tool to support the state’s existing contact tracing efforts — download it today! (CNBC) More about the app below.
Gov. Cuomo said today that 20 hotspot zip codes across the state have an average positivity rate of 6.5 percent, up from 5.5 percent yesterday. (NBC New York) If you subtract the hotspots, the state’s positivity rate remains below 1 percent.
Nationwide, the US averaged roughly 43,000 new cases per day, unchanged from the week before, but the number of new daily infections rose in 25 states in the past week. (Axios)
Colorado has been added to New York’s travel advisory requiring a 14-day quarantine, while Arizona, Illinois, and Virginia have been removed from the list. Here’s the latest full list of qualifying states.
A new study analyzing 38 million English-language articles about the pandemic found that the largest driver of COVID-related misinformation was Pres. Trump. (New York Times)
Speaking of: counter to Pres. Trump’s promises, Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine won’t be ready until long after Election Day. (CBS News) The company’s CEO said that it wouldn't apply for FDA approval until at least Nov. 25 at the earliest, making widespread distribution likely in the spring of next year.

One good read: Why all New Yorkers, even the inherently suspicious, should download the new COVID alert app, from Pastor Johnnie Green (New York Daily News)

Survey

Today's poll: Today, New York launched COVID Alert NY, a new exposure notification app to support the state’s contact tracing system. Contact tracing is a critical tool for identifying and containing spread of the virus, and this app will be an increasingly useful tool the more people participate. Instead of answering a poll question today, please use that time to download the app to your device:

App Store (for iPhone)
Google Play (for Android)

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

What You Need to Know

COVID Alert NY:

Today, the New York State Department of Health and Tech:NYC, along with Google, Apple, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and a coalition of technology and research partners, launched COVID Alert NY, the state’s official exposure notification app.
New York has robust tracing programs in place, with about 15,000 contact tracers working statewide, but even a program of that size needs support to be effective on the scale demanded by the pandemic. (CNBC)
- Hotspots in several Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods are seeing case counts that continue to climb, just as NYC reopens the remainder of its school buildings and begins permitting some indoor dining. (New York Times)
- As tracers work to map those hotspots and other places where the virus may be spreading, a majority of people they reach out to decline to provide the information officials need to identify their close contacts. (New York Times)
- The app comes at a critical moment to offer an additional solution to those challenges and to bring information about the risk of exposure directly into the palms of New Yorkers.
Here’s how it works:
- Phones that have downloaded the app are assigned a random ID that can be exchanged with other phones via Bluetooth technology.
- Devices that are within six feet of each other for 10 minutes or longer exchange those random IDs.
- If a person tests positive and reports it on the app, a notification goes out to those with whom they had close contact alerting them of potential exposure.
- The app also serves as a resource hub of daily case count numbers and informs users of the steps they can take to prevent further virus spread.
And it’s designed to work by placing privacy first. (New York Daily News) Here’s how:
- It uses secure Bluetooth technology, not GPS, that can only detect when two devices are in proximity to each other, not geographic location. It doesn’t collect users’ data on their location or movement.
- The random ID assigned to your device changes every 15 minutes, and users are not identified to other users, nor is their personal identifiable information shared — not with other users, Google, Apple, or the Department of Health.
Just like low-tech efforts like wearing a mask and practicing social distancing, this app will only become more and more effective the more people participate in using it. Be sure to download it for free today.

What to Know: Reopening:

NYC completed the reopening of all of its public schools, with middle and high school students returning for in-person instruction today. (New York Times) About half a million students have now returned to classrooms, making NYC the only large district in the country to reopen all its school buildings.
A new audit paints a grim picture for NYC’s restaurant and hospitality industry: as many as half of all bars and restaurants could close permanently in the next six months due to coronavirus. (New York Post) But many are hoping the return of indoor dining this week will be successful and allow for a wider reopening that brings back more patrons. (POLITICO)