Tech:NYC Newsletter
Posts
Tech:NYC Digest: December 7

Tech:NYC Digest: December 7

December 07, 2020 • Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes

Monday, December 7, 2020As NYC’s reopening and recovery efforts continue, the 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: Gov. Cuomo sets five day ultimatum to control regional hospitalization rates, or else no more indoor dining for NYC; 190,000 public school kids returned to school today; New York and 26 other states prepare for their first vaccine shipments this month; new NYU study shows mass transit not responsible for any significant infectious disease spread in the last ten years, COVID-19 included.

Confirmed Case

New York State: 713,129 (+7,302)
New York City: 333,771 (+2,765)
Statewide Fatalities: 27,232 (+80)
NYC Positivity Rates:
- NYS reports: 4.0 percent (no change)
- NYC reports: 5.0 percent (-0.1 percent)

General Updates:

With case levels in NYC now surpassing previously defined thresholds for closing down nonessential businesses, Mayor de Blasio announced today the city’s COVID metrics will change to give a more accurate picture of the situation. (New York Daily News) The daily positivity rate will be eliminated in favor of the rate reported as a seven-day rolling average, which is a more accurate measure less impacted by reporting lag times. A count of “probable cases” will also now be reported daily.
Gov. Cuomo declared today that should the three-week projection of a region’s overall hospital occupancy exceed 90 percent, he will order a shutdown. He worries hospitalization rates will continue rising through January. (Gothamist)
- Additionally, if NYC’s rate doesn’t stabilize or flatten within five days, indoor dining will no longer be permitted in NYC, a move that could come as early as Monday. (Eater NY) Other regions in the state that fail to control the hospitalization rate within five days will have indoor dining capacity reduced from 50 percent to 25 percent.
The first shipments of the coronavirus vaccine are expected in 27 states in the next two weeks, including New York. The shipments will be small, initial batches, though — the available supply this month won’t be enough for any of those states to fully cover their first priority groups. (CNN) Dr. Fauci told Gov. Cuomo today that “umbrella protection” wouldn’t be reached until at least 75 percent of the country has the vaccine, which isn’t likely until the end of summer 2021. (Newsday)
Even when a vaccine becomes available, it will be challenging to convince people to take it. (Axios) Two new polls show it could be an uphill battle: more than half of NYC firefighters said they won’t get it when it’s available to first responders, and in another survey, fewer than half of Black respondents said they would definitely or probably get it.
- NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi also recently shared details of a Health Department survey indicating just slightly more than half of NYC residents said they’d get the vaccine. (New York Post)
We’re expecting that Pfizer’s vaccine data will be released to the public for the first time tomorrow. But until then, here’s a good overview of what is involved in getting the vaccine from pharmaceutical companies’ manufacturers to your immune system. (Vox)

One event worth your time: At noon tomorrow, Tech:NYC hosts the next installment of our Functions.NYC series, which pairs tech and civic leaders to talk about all the systems that make NYC function. We’ll be discussing climate and sustainability with NYC chief climate policy advisor Daniel Zarrilli and BlocPower CEO Donnel Baird. RSVP here and we’ll send you the Zoom link.One good read: 500 Reasons We’ve Loved New York: a sendoff to the many places, big and small, that closed in 2020 (Curbed)

Yesterday's results: President-elect Biden said that he will call on all Americans to don masks during the first 100 days of his presidency. Heading into those first 100 days and beyond, how much do you expect mask wearing to continue to be a part of our public life?

Today's poll

: With an ongoing surge in cases and hospitalizations, Gov. Cuomo said it is likely that additional lockdown measures will be put into effect, including the

shutdown of indoor dining

. As the post-Thanksgiving surge collides with an expected Christmas surge, even broader lockdown options are on the table. Other states are raising similar alarms — in California, for example, a renewed stay-at-home order for many of the state’s cities and regions

goes in effect today

. At a minimum, tighter measures seem inevitable — how do you think the city and state will proceed?

*|SURVEY: New York will be able to continue with targeted hotspot lockdown measures|*
*|SURVEY: New York will have to implement regional/citywide lockdowns measures|*
*|SURVEY: New York will have to implement statewide lockdown measures|*

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

Reopening:

About 190,000 3-K, pre-K, and elementary school students returned to in-person instruction today, and students with special needs will return beginning Thursday. (New York Times) After deciding to rework the three percent threshold that caused school shutdowns a few weeks ago, Mayor de Blasio said today he’s committed to keeping schools open as long as possible. Moving forward, individual school building closures are still a possibility, based on the testing data of that school’s population.
With hospitalizations continuing to rise, Gov. Cuomo ordered all hospitals to increase their bed capacity for coronavirus patients by 25 percent. (Spectrum News) After that point, if new patient trends indicate a hospital will reach a 90 percent capacity in the next three weeks, the area the hospital is in will return to the “PAUSE” measures from the spring. (Newsday)
The NYC Health Commissioner said children under the age of 18 will not receive the vaccine when it becomes available because there hasn’t yet been sufficient data showing how it impacts them. (New York Daily News)
A new study from the NYU Rudin Center for Transportation examined influenza data from 121 cities across the US, including NYC, over a ten-year span and found no evidence that mass transit systems are responsible for increased spread of infectious viruses. (NYU) It compared the air circulation on NYC’s subways to that of healthcare facilities, finding fresh air exchanged nine to 18 times per hour, exceeding CDC recommendations.
As scores of small businesses are figuring out how to stay afloat, one possible lifeline is in a new bill that would create funding for more direct aid by collecting taxes from commercial owners on storefronts that have been vacant for at least six months. (New York Times)
And here’s one way you can help: consider doing your online shopping at shopIN.nyc, a new centralized platform to get goods from local stories delivered same-day all in one box.