COVID-19 Digest: September 28

COVID-19 Digest: September 28

September 28, 2020 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

COVID-19 Digest

Monday, September 28, 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: For the first time since June, NY daily COVID cases surpass 1,000; NYC teachers union concerned about staff shortage; indoor dining starts on Wed. at 25 percent capacity, restaurateurs want more; residential eviction moratorium extended through year’s end.Confirmed Cases: 

  • New York State: 456,460 (+834)

  • New York City: 243,072 (+379)

  • Statewide Fatalities: 25,468 (+11)

  • Daily NYC Infection Rate: 1.6 percent (+0.4 percent)

General Updates:

  • Over the weekend, New York reported more than 1,000 new daily coronavirus cases for the first time since early June. (Wall Street Journal) There have now been three straight days of the statewide positivity rate rising above one percent, climbing to 1.5 percent today. The top ten zip codes make up 25 percent of the total positive cases; without those included, the state’s infection rate remains at about one percent.

  • Much of that uptick is coming from Brooklyn, Queens, and Orange and Rockland counties. (NY State of Politics) The neighborhoods with new clusters in South Brooklyn and Queens could see additional restrictions, including the closing of schools and nonessential businesses, this week if case counts don’t decline. (Gothamist) The Dept. of Health set a deadline for this evening for the situation to improve, but the data doesn’t look promising: as of Sunday afternoon, seven of the eight neighborhoods saw caseloads increase from the prior day’s report.

  • With the next round of in-person school reopenings coming later this week, and with teacher shortages an ongoing problem, the union representing NYC’s principals has asked the state Dept. of Education to intervene and assume control of the city’s schools from the mayor. (New York Times) The union confirmed administrators and teachers will still return classrooms this week, despite the vote of no confidence.

  • And mark your calendars: the first presidential debate is tomorrow evening. (Washington Post) It will air commercial-free, the audience size will be culled from the typical 900 to just 75, and, interestingly, will forego any opening statements and go straight into moderated questions.

  • And if you have friends who aren’t following COVID-19 health guidelines, they may be narcissists.

One way to help: Tech:NYC is teaming up with Columbia University researchers and other community partners to gather more information about the needs and challenges of small businesses amid COVID-19. If you’re a startup founder or other small business owner in NYC, please complete this survey.

One good read: A new survey commissioned by Tech:NYC shows that New Yorkers want more ways to land tech jobs. (Crain’s NY)

Survey

The latest results: What’s your favorite way to usher in autumn in New York?

  • 34.0%: Apple picking, hay rides, and corn mazes

  • 4.9%: Haunted houses, pumpkin carving, and Halloween candy

  • 35.0%: More Netflix and more (mulled) wine

  • 26.2%: All of the above

Today’s poll: It’s now been more than a month since “low risk” cultural institutions could reopen in NYC, including outdoor venues like botanical gardens and zoos and some indoor venues like libraries and museums — all with limited capacity guidelines. Have you visited any of these reopened spaces?

  • *|SURVEY: Yes, I’ve visited an outdoor institution (botanical garden, zoo, etc.)|*

  • *|SURVEY: Yes, I’ve visited an indoor institution (library, museum, etc.)|*

  • *|SURVEY: Yes, I’ve visited both indoor and outdoor institutions|*

  • *|SURVEY: No, I haven’t visited any of these institutions|*

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

What You Need to Know

What to Know: Reopening:

  • Indoor dining reopens at 25 percent capacity in NYC on Wednesday. (The Guardian) But restaurant owners rallied today for a faster reopening, pushing Gov. Cuomo to permit indoor dining at 50 percent capacity from the start. (NY1)

  • A new deal between the NYC Dept. of Education and the city’s teachers union will allow more teachers to work from home for the upcoming school year. (New York Post) Previously, any teacher not given a specific coronavirus exemption was required to teach from their school building each day, even if they were teaching remotely.

  • Gov. Cuomo announced today the state would extend the moratorium on residential evictions through the end of 2020. (NBC New York)

  • United Airlines is beginning a pilot program to offer travelers on-the-spot preflight coronavirus tests at the airport. (NPR) The pilot will begin with customers going to Hawaii from San Francisco and hopes to expand to other major hubs.

Related reading:

  • Masks, Floor Decals, Mute Buttons: How Schools Are Scrambling to Open (New York Times)

  • The Pandemic Bike Boom Hits American Cities (Bloomberg)

  • How Yurts and Heat Lamps Will Save New York’s Restaurants (New York Times)

  • Is It Insane to Start a Business During Coronavirus? Millions of Americans Don’t Think So (Wall Street Journal)

What to Know: Return-to-Office:

  • Toptal, a fully distributed company with over 4,000 individuals in over 100 countries, released an enterprise-grade playbook of best practices for managing remote teams and choosing the best remote working tools. (Toptal)

  • One interesting new proposal from the Bay Area: a new plan would require California residents to work remotely three days a week — even after the pandemic — as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help the state’s environmental goals. (NBC News) The Metropolitan Transportation Commission voted on and approved the plan, which is also being used as a tool to ensure companies keep 60 percent of their employees out of offices at any given time.

Related reading:

  • The Rise of Remote Work Can Be Unexpectedly Liberating (New York Times)

  • Desk shortage forces people to get creative about workspaces (AP)

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 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 1: Virtual: Redesigning the Office, with Terra Holdings co-chairman Ken Swift, NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate dean Sam Chandan, and more. Hosted by the Municipal Art Society of New York. (Details)

  • October 6: Virtual: Ask Me Anything Live, with Twitter and Medium co-founder Biz Stone. Hosted by Betaworks Studios. (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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