Tech:NYC Digest: April 20

Tech:NYC Digest: April 20

April 20, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

Tuesday, April 20, 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: EU approves J&J for use despite likely link to very rare blood clots; NYU, Columbia, and Yale latest schools to require vaccinations for fall students; GM announces “work appropriately” strategy, a flexible work plan to undo rigid office hour structure post-pandemic; New Yorkers celebrate their first legal 4/20.By the Numbers:

  • New York State: 1,993,190 (+3,922)

  • New York City: 896,153 (+1,774)

  • Statewide Fatalities: 41,575 (+45)

  • NYC Positivity Rates: 

    • NYS reports: 3.0 percent (-0.1 percent)

    • NYC reports: 4.7 percent (-0.2 percent)

  • Vaccine Progress:

    • NYS first doses administered: 8,410,070 (+83,638)

    • NYC first doses administered: 3,209,511 (+70,324)

General Updates:

  • Even as vaccinations continue apace, new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to rise in much of the country. The US reported an average of more than 67,100 new COVID-19 infections daily, slightly below where the average was a week prior, but still 25 percent above where it was nearly a month ago. (CNN)

    • The current bump in cases and hospitalizations isn’t completely unexpected, as pandemic fatigue sets further in and as the warmer weather lures people out and about.

    • The most recent guidelines from the US State Department are urging Americans not to travel to 80 percent of countries worldwide because of high case numbers in those places. (NPR)

  • Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine hit another bump as the FDA ordered a manufacturer to completely stop production after supply chains were mixed up at a plant in Baltimore. This is just the latest roadblock as the company strives to make good on its promise to deliver nearly 100 million doses by the end of May. (Washington Post) 

    • Meanwhile, the EU’s top regulator found a possible link between the J&J vaccine and blood clots and called for a warning to be added to the vaccine’s product information. (Wall Street Journal) Even so, the agency maintained the vaccine’s benefits still outweigh the risks. (CNBC) Stateside, a majority of Americans support the CDC’s recommendation to stop distributing the vaccine. (Axios)

  • A new analysis from Hamilton Place Strategies shows how each individual state fared in their health and economic responses to the coronavirus, and it’s pretty much bad news end to end. In New York, we lost about 55,000 jobs per million residents and had an increase of 3,300 deaths per million residents due to COVID. As a whole, the country lost 30,000 jobs per million people and had an increase of about 2,200 deaths per million people. (Axios)

  • And lastly, happy 4/20. If you’re fully vaccinated and inclined to celebrate, there’s a (completely legal) Joints for Jabs giveaway in Union Square Park. (New York Post)

The latest results: The MTA recently saw the highest ridership numbers during the pandemic, with more than two million people taking the train in a day. Shortly after that milestone, the agency released survey data showing an overwhelming majority of New Yorkers plan to work from home long-term — and thus use transit less. How often are you now taking the subway?  

Today's poll

: After state legislators cleared the haze of prohibition

, New Yorkers 21 and older can legally celebrate the 4/20 holiday this Tuesday by partaking in recreational cannabis. Though possession of flower, edibles, and concentrates became immediately legal, plans for dispensaries and other aspects of the industry will be ironed out over the next year. What do you think cannabis retail should look like in New York City?

 

  • *|SURVEY: Dispensaries should be able to apply for permits and do business same as liquor stores|*

  • *|SURVEY: Community boards should decide how many, if any, dispensaries are permitted in their neighborhoods|*

  • *|SURVEY: City government — City Council and the mayor’s office — should have full discretion of where dispensaries can be established|*

  • *|SURVEY: No dispensaries should be permitted in the city |*

  • New York University and Columbia University, as well as Yale and others, joined a growing list of higher education institutions that will require college students to be vaccinated before returning to in-person classes this fall. Some schools have even started offering incentives to returning students, such as not wearing masks on campus and skipping COVID-19 testing. (New York Times)

  • NYC’s tourism industry is showing signs of life: visits to the Met Museum and the American Museum of Natural History are up, and more than 100 new hotels are set to open in the city by the end of the year. (Bloomberg)

  • A historic increase in state education funding, made possible through the federal American Rescue Plan and the state budget plan, will allow NYC to invest an additional $600 million annually. The infusion will restore every school’s full funding levels and offer new increases to more than 1,100 of them. (Gothamist)

Related reading:

Working:

  • General Motors introduced a rather simple strategy as it begins plans to reintegrate its 155,000 employees to the workplace: “work appropriately.” The plan aims to simplify everything from office hours to recruiting processes to employee dress code, and is designed to give employees the flexibility to work in a way that they will uniquely find to be most efficient. (CNBC)

  • As people went inside, restaurants went online. While many eateries did not survive the pandemic, those that did were successful because of their ability to capitalize on the digital marketplace. With the help of a broader set of tech tools, restaurateurs revamped their websites and used new delivery and customer management tools to stay afloat and in some instances, do more business in the last year than they did before. (New York Times)

Related reading:

  • What will happen if employers end remote work options? Here’s what one survey found. (HR Dive)

  • What Psychological Safety Looks Like in a Hybrid Workplace (Harvard Business Review)

  • 10 New Books on Leading in a Hybrid Work Environment (Entrepreneur)

  • Congress and the internet have saved NYC small businesses (amNY)

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 21: Virtual: Data Science Day, with Amazon chief economist Pat Bajari and lightning talks from Columbia University researchers. Hosted by the Columbia University Data Science Institute. (Details)

  • April 21: Virtual: A Fireside Chat with Yancey Spruill, CEO of Digital Ocean. Hosted by Work-Bench. (Details)

  • April 22: Virtual: Live (Mock) Term Sheet Negotiation, with Lerer Hippeau principal Caitlin Strandberg, Koffie Labs CEO Ian White, Orrick managing associates Frank Paz and Jae Zhou, and more. Hosted by NYU Data Future Lab. (Details)

  • April 23: Virtual: Equity in the Digital Divide, with a panel of computer science instructions and Code Nation alumni. Hosted by Code Nation. (Details)

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

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