Tech:NYC Digest: August 2

Tech:NYC Digest: August 2

August 02, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes

Monday, August 2, 2021

In today’s digest, Mayor de Blasio stops short of issuing new mask mandate, MTA workers are latest workforce to face vax mandate, and tech companies scramble to adjust their reopening plans (again).

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By the numbers:

  • New positive cases statewide: 2,143

    • New positive cases, NYC: 1,202

  • Statewide Fatalities: 4

  • NYC Positivity Rates: 

    • NYS reports: 2.4 percent (+0.1 percent)

    • NYC reports: 3.0 percent (+0.1 percent)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress:

    • Percentage of adults (18+) with at least one dose: 75.5 percent

    • Percentage of total population with at least one dose: 63.2 percent

(For fuller breakdowns, find the state’s numbers here and the city’s numbers here.)

Today’s latest:

After much debate, Mayor de Blasio is “strongly recommending” all New Yorkers wear face masks in public indoor settings, regardless of vaccination status. (Gothamist)

  • NYC is now reporting about 1,200 new COVID-19 cases per day, six times the number in June.

  • A poll released today (but conducted before the CDC’s newest indoor masking recommendation) shows a slim majority — 52 percent — of Americans were supportive of reinstating mask protocols. 

To be clear, New Yorkers are not subject to a new mask mandate. Mayor de Blasio stopped short of reinstating mask mandates, worried that requiring everyone to wear masks removes the incentive for those considering getting vaccinated. (New York Times) Gov. Cuomo backed his position, saying today that any decision to require them would be up to local governments. (AP)

  • The decision diverges from Washington, DC, Los Angeles County, and other large metro areas where indoor mask mandates have been restored in the last week. (NBC New York) Seven Bay Area counties also today announced a mask mandate. (Wall Street Journal)

Reminder: Even though there is no official mask mandate here, previous guidance requiring masks on public transit and in schools and healthcare settings still stands.

In the meantime, both the mayor and the governor said they want to focus on increasing the vaccination rate, and have continued adding new vaccination mandates for public workers.

  • Gov. Cuomo announced all MTA and Port Authority employees in New York must be vaccinated by Labor Day or face weekly testing.

  • Mayor de Blasio announced all public health care workers and newly hired city employees will be required to show proof of vaccination. 

If counts continue to rise, Gov. Cuomo said broader vaccine mandates for teachers, nursing home workers, and other healthcare staff would be considered. 

In related reading: 

  • You’re going to be asked to prove your vaccination status. Here’s how to do it. (Washington Post)

  • Who Are the Unvaccinated in America? There’s No One Answer. (New York Times)

  • When will the summer coronavirus surge peak? It will get worse before it gets better, experts predict. (Washington Post)

  • Where should you wear a mask when traveling? What the CDC says about 14 top US cities (Washington Post)

Last week, Apple, Google, Facebook, and Twitter announced updated policies that include some combination of vaccination mandates, the resumption of mask-wearing in offices, and delayed reopenings in reaction to the Delta wave of infections. (New York Times)

And it seems to have set a precedent. We had a feeling that these announcements would set off an avalanche of other tech companies following closely behind, and we were right. Here’s a roundup of some of the other major updates we’ve heard about:

  • Lyft is pushing back its return-to-office date to February 2022, instead of the initial September date, in a majority of its US locations, including NYC. All employees who work in the company’s offices must also be vaccinated. (New York Times)

  • Asana is pushing back its return-to-office date to no earlier than February 1, 2022 for all NYC and San Francisco employees. (CNBC)

  • Uber won’t require employees to return to the office until October 25, instead of its initial September date. All US employees must be vaccinated when they return to the office this fall. (Reuters)

  • LinkedIn is giving its employees and team managers greater freedom to decide how they want to return to the office, if at all. The company won't mandate either a specific return date or amount of time in the office. Instead, it will let individual teams decide their own hybrid-working strategy, with managers taking a call based on discussions with colleagues. (Reuters)

Much of Wall Street has already welcomed (and in some cases, required) employees back, but they too are updating policies:

  • BlackRock is currently allowing only vaccinated employees to return to the office. Starting in September the company will have a "hybrid model," with some vaccinated employees working from the office and others from home. (CNN)

  • Citigroup is requiring unvaccinated employees to use an at-home rapid test three times a week and to wear masks in the office. Those who show proof of vaccination are currently allowed to bypass those requirements. (New York Times)

  • Goldman Sachs employees are currently required to report their vaccine status to the company, and unvaccinated employees are required to get a rapid COVID-19 test at the company's headquarters. (CNN)

  • Morgan Stanley’s New York office has banned all unvaccinated staff and clients from entering its headquarters, and employees were already required to confirm their vaccination status. (Axios)

It’s now moving beyond tech and finance, as well: Companies from Walmart to Netflix to the Walt Disney Company to the Washington Post are requiring vaccinations of their employees. Equinox and SoulCycle are among those that will require the same from its members.

Still, many other companies — including smaller tech companies and startups — are feeling frozen in place by a patchwork of city, state, and CDC guidance that seems to change more quickly than companies can react.

Our take: That’s largely why more and more companies are finally taking the step to require vaccines — or just hitting the pause button altogether. We’ll be watching closely to see these trends inch closer to the default, particularly for small and mid-sized tech companies.

Has your company paused or changed its return-to-office plans in response to the Delta variant and summer surge in cases? We’d love to learn more. Get in touch here.

In related reading:

  • Velo3D CEO Benny Buller: I mandated vaccines for my business. Here’s how it has paid off (CNN)

  • The Delta Variant: How Companies Should Respond (Harvard Business Review)

  • Flex Work Leaves San Francisco Trailing NYC in Office Comeback (Washington Post)

  • Catch, a New York-based provider of benefits for independent contractors, raised $12 million in Series A funding led by Crosslink, with Khosla Ventures, NYCA Partners, Kindred Ventures, and Urban Innovation Fund also participating. (TechCrunch)

  • Mixlab, a New York-based pet pharmacy partner, raised $20 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Sonoma Brands, with Global Founders Capital, Monogram Capital, Lakehouse Ventures, Brand Foundry, and others also participating. (TechCrunch)

  • Oova, a New York-based fertility company, raised $4.4 million in pre-seed and seed funding. Investors included BBG Ventures, Company Ventures, David Sable from Special Situations Life Sciences Fund, Thorne Healthtech, and AmplifyHer Ventures. (TechCrunch)

  • Paxos, a New York-based blockchain company, added Bank of America, FTX, Coinbase Ventures, and Founders Fund to its previously announced $300 million Series D round. (Bitcoin News)

  • Talkiatry, a New York-based in-network psychiatric care startup, raised $20 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Left Lane Capital with participation from the founder and former CEO of CityMD, Dr. Richard Park, as an extension of previously secured $5 million in financing. (TechCrunch)

  • Trading.TV, a New York-based social livestreaming platform for traders and financial content creators, raised $6.1 million in seed funding led by L Catterton Growth, Activant, Navy Capital, and Tribe Capital. (FinSMEs)

  • August 10: Virtual: How Tech Companies Expand Internationally, with Accel partner Rich Wong, Atomic founder in residence Swathy Prithivi, Asana head of global revenue Oliver Jay, and others. Hosted by Protocol. Register here.

  • August 11: Virtual: Fostering Innovation Post-COVID, with Refraction CEO Esther Lee, Company Ventures’ Urban Tech Hub executive director Robinson Hernandez, and others. Hosted by Savills. Register here.

  • October 6 – 7: 2021 Propelify Innovation Festival, with Tech:NYC founder and executive director Julie Samuels, Capsule CEO Eric Kinariwala, Noom CEO Saeju Jeong, Bowery Farming CEO Irving Fain, and others. Hosted by TechUnited:NJ. Use code WeInventTheFuture to register for a free general admission ticket for a limited time here.

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