Tech:NYC Digest: April 13

Tech:NYC Digest: April 13

April 13, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

Tuesday, April 13, 2021As the vaccination rollout progresses and NYC continues to respond to the pandemic, this digest focuses on the resources that help you make decisions about your businesses and your lives as New Yorkers.Was this digest forwarded to you? Subscribe here.

The latest: J&J vaccine rollout paused, about 4,000 NYC appointments today cancelled; NYC DOE unveils “Summer Rising” summer school program, free for any student that wants to participate; city opens vaccine site for TV, film, theatre workers to help boost the return of the arts; Salesforce announced HQ reopening plans, starting with vaccinated workers first.

By the Numbers:

  • New York State: 1,951,359 (+5,029)

  • New York City: 876,492 (+2,311)

  • Statewide Fatalities: 41,257 (+58)

  • NYC Positivity Rates: 

    • NYS reports: 3.4 percent (-0.1 percent)

    • NYC reports: 5.3 percent (no change)

  • Vaccine Progress:

    • NYS first doses administered: 7,705,087 (+133,538)

    • NYC first doses administered: 2,808,573 (+53,788)

General Updates:

  • Federal officials have called for a pause in administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, after six US recipients suffered blood clots within two weeks of vaccination. (New York Times) New York and several other states have answered that call, pausing use of the one-dose vaccine immediately until safety standards can be evaluated.

    • New Yorkers who already have confirmed appointments to receive the J&J shot will instead receive the first of two Pfizer doses, but the program providing the J&J shot to homebound seniors has been suspended for the time being. (Gothamist)

    • The White House has said the pause will not have a significant impact on the rollout nationwide and it still expects to reach its goals of 200 million shots completed by Pres. Biden’s 100th day in office. (Axios)

    • While officials say the pause was put in place out of an “abundance of caution,” it should be emphasized that the six affected cases is an extremely small number, given that seven million people in the US — including about 234,000 NYC residents — have now received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. (New York Daily News)

  • That pause comes as new data show for the first time a ZIP-code level look at how variants are spreading in NYC. (New York Times) The NYC variant and the UK variant now make up over 70 percent of new infections in the city. Get a better look at the maps to see where your ZIP code stands here. 

    • Those variant strains are a leading reason for why NYC’s daily case counts remain stubbornly high compared to other global business hubs. On Sunday, NYC saw more than 3,000 cases, five times more than the combined totals reported on the same day in London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Singapore. 

  • And lastly, the pandemic robbed the Met Museum of its 150th anniversary last year, so join Google Doodle in wishing it a happy 151st birthday today!

The latest results: The Manhattan office market has constricted by as much as 25 percent as work remains remote. Even so, tech companies have charged ahead with lease commitments and financial firms have vowed to bring summer interns into the office this year to help ease life back to normal. When your office reopens, how do you expect to structure your work week?

Today's poll

: In the last week, more colleges and universities — including Duke, Brown, Northeastern, Notre Dame, Syracuse, and Ithaca College —

to be fully vaccinated to come back to campus for the fall semester. New York is

to help institutions in the state expedite that process by providing a supply of doses to campuses directly. Unless for religious or medical exemptions, do you think the vaccine should be mandatory at all higher education institutions?

  • *|SURVEY: Yes, for all residential and nonresidential students and faculty|*

  • *|SURVEY: Yes, but only for residential students and faculty|*

  • *|SURVEY: Yes, but only for nonresidential students and faculty|*

  • *|SURVEY: No|*

  • The NYC Dept. of Education is unveiling a new program called “Summer Rising” to provide summer school to any student who wants it. The program will be available for free to all K-12 students, including high school students who plan to participate in the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program. (NBC New York)

  • A dedicated vaccination site has been opened in Times Square for television, film, and theatre workers. The site can administer up to 1,500 doses per day and is being staffed by theatre workers, many of whom lost their jobs when Broadway went dark more than a year ago. (Deadline)

  • The pause of the J&J vaccine has caused the suspension of the city’s initiative to vaccinate homebound seniors. The mayor has stressed the city needs more Pfizer and Moderna doses to fill the various gaps left by the J&J halt. (WCBS 880)

Related reading:

  • The risk-reward calculus of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, visualized (Washington Post)

  • To Save the Subway, Send in the Crowds (Bloomberg)

Working:

  • Salesforce announced it would reopen its headquarters in May, starting with vaccinated workers. (San Francisco Chronicle) 

    • Unlike other tech companies that won't make vaccination mandatory, it will require proof of vaccination from its first round of employees who volunteer to return to the office.

    • Those employees will be grouped into cohorts of 100 or fewer to start, assigned to office times with that initial cohort at an overall maximum capacity of 20 percent.

    • There are no firm dates on these changes, but the company has said when local coronavirus cases fall below one per 1,000 people and there is a less than one percent positivity rate, the office will fully reopen.

  • An upskilling success story we love: Emma Sadler, a 29 year old single mom, was laid off from her job at a restaurant in the Museum of Modern Art at the onset of the pandemic. As the future of hospitality remained bleak, she enrolled in a three-month online UX design course and now has a tech career in New York earning about $75,000 per year with her new skills. She’s currently taking a front-end development course to further improve her coding skills. (CNBC)

Related reading:

  • Why this building security company exec believes more people will return to the office in NYC soon (New York Business Journal)

  • Working from home: the good, the bad and the ugly (The Guardian)

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.

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:

  • April 14: Virtual: The Future of the Flexible Workplace, with US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Twitch chief people officer Lenke Taylor. Hosted by Axios. (Details)

  • April 14: Virtual: The Future of Trust, with Edelman CEO Richard Edelman, Pew Research Center director Amiy Mitchell, NYU Center for Data Science professor Vasant Dhar, and more. Hosted by the NYC Media Lab. (Details)

  • April 15: Virtual: Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) Employer Showcase for companies who wish to participate in the program in 2021, with NYC Deputy Mayor Phil Thompson. (Details)

  • April 16: Virtual: Women Investing in Women: The Ecosystem in Action, with FirstMark Capital general partner Beth Ferreira, Acrew Capital founding partner Theresia Gouw, and GingerBread Capital CEO Linnea Roberts. Hosted by GingerBread Capital. (Details)

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

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