COVID-19 Digest: September 24

COVID-19 Digest: September 24

September 24, 2020 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

COVID-19 Digest

Thursday, September 24, 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: National coronavirus cases up 16 percent week-over-week; NYS establishing independent review and distribution plan for future COVID-19 vaccine; City Council looks to help tourism sector with series of new bills; read how Cognitive ToyBox is supporting blended learning in our latest Companies to Watch.Confirmed Cases: 

  • New York State: 452,874 (+955)

  • New York City: 241,511 (+424)

  • Statewide Fatalities: 25,439 (+2)

  • Daily NYC Infection Rate: 1.1 percent (no change)

General Updates:

  • National coronavirus case numbers are on the rise again, averaging about 43,000 new cases per day, a 16 percent increase from a week ago. (Axios) Twenty-two states are seeing increases, mostly in the West and Midwest. So far, there hasn't been a spreading event identified that explains the rise.

  • At least one coronavirus case has been reported at more than 100 school buildings and early childhood centers in connection with the first day of in-person learning in NYC. (New York Times) But nearly all of those buildings have remained open, as city guidelines say that only schools with two cases in different classrooms must close.

  • Gov. Cuomo said today New York would create its own independent review process to determine the safety and effectiveness of all the vaccines approved by the federal government. (New York Times) The new Clinical Advisory Task Force aims to bypass confusion about the vaccine timeline coming from the White House, and will advise how the state procures as many as 40 million doses, how it will be disbursed, and who gets it first.

  • We’re now 40 days until Election Day. Here’s everything you need to know about voting in 2020 (but were afraid to ask). (Vox)

  • And, sorry, no Peeps for the holiday season. But the Hallowen candy aisles still have you covered.

Survey

The latest results: In marking the 100th flash poll in this digest, we have one simple question: are you confident that New York is, in fact, not dead?

  • 36.7%: Yes, it will bounce back, as it always does

  • 3.2%: Yes, it will come back stronger than ever

  • 7.4%: Yes, if any place can come out on top, it’s NYC

  • 52.7%: Yes, all of the above

Today’s poll: New York State announced today it will establish its own review process for a potential COVID-19 vaccine, including how the state plans to distribute doses. This comes after a recent poll revealed a majority of Americans wouldn’t get a “first-generation” vaccine as soon as it’s available. What do you plan to do when a vaccine comes out?

  • *|SURVEY: I will get it as soon as possible|*

  • *|SURVEY: I will wait to get it until a majority of others take it first|*

  • *|SURVEY: I will wait until a second iteration of the vaccine is available|*

  • *|SURVEY: I do not plan on ever getting the COVID-19 vaccine|*

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

What You Need to Know

What to Know: Reopening:

  • Stay-at-home orders are the most effective way to reduce COVID-19 infections, according to a new study, and do less economic damage than closing nonessential businesses. (Bloomberg)

  • A package of NYC Council bills is aiming to provide more support to the city’s pandemic-racked tourism industry. (Crain’s NY) Among the proposals:

    • To create a corollary to the Open Restaurants program designed for theaters and performance venues to host programing in outdoor spaces;

    • To create a centralized agency under the Mayor’s Office for members of the tourism industry to get easier access to city departments and communicate directly with city officials.

  • State Department of Health guidelines about required immunizations remain in effect this year, even for students who have opted for all-remote instruction. Students who lack all their immunizations 14 days after the beginning of the school year cannot attend school, either in-person or remotely. (Democrat & Chronicle)

  • Gov. Cuomo signed an executive order allowing people who are currently collecting unemployment benefits to sign up to become poll workers without losing their benefits. (New York Daily News)

  • Google Maps is bringing a new COVID-19 layer to the service to help users better understand the risk of transmission in a given area, color-coding areas based on the number of cases per 100,000 people. (TechCrunch)

Related reading:

  • New York’s Arts Shutdown: The Economic Crisis in One Lost Weekend (New York Times)

What to Know: Return-to-Office:

  • Google is developing a hybrid work plan, after internal surveys showed most employees don’t want to come to the office full time. (CNBC) While employees don’t want to return to the office full time, they don’t want to be WFH full time either, with just 10 percent saying they don’t want to come into the office at all in the future.

  • With a new headquarters in the Meatpacking district, Yext CEO Howard Lerman said the company’ employees will return to the office before the end of the year, much sooner than fellow tech firms. (Crain’s NY)

  • Amazon is expanding its COVID-19 testing program to regularly test its several hundred thousand warehouse workers. (The Information) The company is now testing workers in 23 states and processing the tests using its own federally certified labs.

Related reading:

One Company to Watch:

COGNITIVE TOYBOX

What does your company do?

Cognitive ToyBox co-founder and CEO Tammy Kwan: Cognitive ToyBox is an edtech company focused on early childhood education. We develop game-based solutions that support parents and educators in assessment and learning. Our mission is to help every child start school ready to succeed.

COVID-19 has posed all kinds of challenges, and perhaps one of the biggest is its impact on education, especially for a school district as large and diverse as NYC. We’re in the first week of blended learning for a first group of public schools students — what hurdles should we be anticipating? What markers should we be keeping our eye as we get underway? 

TK: Student/family participation is a marker that I recommend focusing on. Especially for younger children, the remote aspect of blended learning requires a lot of supervision at home from parents and caregivers — we need to ensure that parents are supported at this time. Tech companies and schools can work together to make teaching tools easy to use, culturally relevant, and light-touch for families who are already juggling so much. This is especially true for early childhood grades like Pre-K, when children (and sometimes parents) are new to school, not familiar with technology, and have shorter attention spans. Read the full interview here.

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:

  • September 29: Virtual: Startup Fundraising Strategies, with Chirpp. Hosted by Newlab. (Details)

  • September 29: Virtual: Ask Me Anything Live, with Twitch cofounder Justin Kan. Hosted by Betaworks Studios. (Details)

  • September 30: Virtual: What Moved Us: NYC’s Approach to Managing Algorithms, with NYC Mayor’s Office of Operations’ Alex Foard and Civic Hall’s Micah Sifry. Hosted by Civic Hall. (Details)

  • October 7 – 9: Virtual: NYC Media Lab Summit 2020, with Andrew Yang, Kara Swisher, and more. Hosted by NYC Media Lab. (Details)

When In Doubt

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

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