Tech:NYC Digest: February 7

Tech:NYC Digest: February 7

February 07, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Monday, February 7, 2022

In today’s digest, New York poised to lift public mask mandates, CDC confirms K95s and N95s most effective against COVID-19, and Cisco EVP Jeetu Patel on how to make your hybrid meetings more effective. 

Was this digest forwarded to you? Subscribe here.

By the numbers:  

  • New positive cases statewide: 3,795

    • New positive cases, NYC: 1,405

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 2.9 percent (no change)

  • NYC Hospitalizations: 2,108 (-39)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress: 

    • Percentage of all New Yorkers with least one dose: 88.0 percent

    • Percentage of all New Yorkers who are fully vaccinated: 74.6 percent

Today’s latest: 

  • COVID numbers continue to plunge in every part of New York State. (New York Daily News)

    • The statewide positivity rate was 3.5 percent on Sunday, the lowest level since Omicron was named a variant of concern by public health officials.

    • NYC has the lowest positivity rate in the state by multiple percentage points, and new cases are down by nearly 75 percent from two weeks ago.

  • New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced the state will no longer require students and school employees to wear masks beginning the second week of March. (New York Times)

    • New York’s school mask mandate is scheduled to remain in place for at least another two weeks, but Gov. Hochul did hint she is weighing easing the mandate for all indoor settings that don’t screen for vaccination. That rule must be extended or allowed to expire by Thursday. (Spectrum News)

  • Starting this week, CVS and Walgreens are removing limits on the number of at-home coronavirus tests customers can purchase at most locations. Both companies have beefed up their inventory as a result. (New York Times)

  • New CDC data confirms N95 and K95 face masks provide the best protection against COVID-19 infection (83 percent), while surgical masks also provide significant protection (66 percent). (Axios)

  • The Omicron variant has likely gotten more people sick in the past five or six weeks alone than in any similar period since the 1918 flu pandemic. (Wall Street Journal)

In other reading:

  • What’s Going On With Vaccines for Kids Under 5? (New York Times)

  • How Far Should a Coronavirus Test Go? (New York Times)

  • Pandemic stress could be causing your eye problems. Here’s what to know. (Washington Post)

We've been doing remote work for two years, and if we’re being honest, can we really say our videoconferencing etiquette has improved?

  • It’s one thing to develop standardized norms when everyone was forced into remote settings during the peak of the pandemic. It’s an entirely new challenge to adjust those norms as offices reopen and workers join more bifurcated meetings with a mix of in-person and remote team members. (Protocol) 

While we’re still figuring out how to improve our "virtual EQ” in the hybrid workplace, Jeetu Patel says a little emotional intelligence goes a long way.

As Cisco's EVP and general manager of Security and Collaboration, Patel spends much of his time helping businesses navigate these types of workplace changes. Here’s some of his top tips:

  • Make sure everyone has an equal seat at the table. Ensure team members can contribute thoughts at the appropriate moment in a meeting. The closer virtual communication resembles a conversation rather than a lecture, the better.

  • Instead of a transaction, make a personal connection. That implies allowing for more natural discussions in meetings, just as if everyone were together in person.

  • In virtual meetings, avoid multitasking. When participants are participating in virtual meetings, multitasking is a fairly regular occurrence. Virtual communication can become more difficult when you're multitasking at the expense of hearing what the other person is saying and not offering body language indicators on camera.

  • Arrive early to meetings to connect with your coworkers. Just because you can't walk to a conference room any longer doesn't mean you can't arrive early for a meeting. That's when some of the most interesting discussions take place.

  • Don’t adhere to your schedule. Don't be scared to get up and walk around during meetings.

With more teams going permanently work-from-anywhere, Patel says this is a big one: be cognizant of time zones. Many companies are still getting used to this, but he reminds managers that not every meeting needs to be synchronous. 

In other reading: 

  • Why Wall Street Is Suddenly Bullish on Work-Life Balance (New York Times)

  • 3 Tensions Leaders Need to Manage in the Hybrid Workplace (Harvard Business Review)

  • How Working From Home Will Permanently Change the Way We Travel (Bloomberg)

  • Koneksa, a New York City-based digital biomarker design and drug development startup, raised $45 million in Series C funding. AyurMaya led the round and was joined by Takeda Ventures, Velocity Capital, McKesson Ventures, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Novartis (dRx Capital), Spring Mountain Capital, and Waterline Ventures. (MobiHealth)

  • Pecan AI, a New York City and Tel Aviv-based AI predictive analytics platform for business users, raised $66 million in Series C funding. Insight Partners le the round and was joined by GV (formerly Google Ventures), as well as insiders S-Capital, GGV Capital, Dell Technologies Capital, Mindset Ventures, and Vintage Investment Partners. (VentureBeat)

  • Trust Machines, a New York City-based startup building web3 apps on the bitcoin blockchain, raised $150 million in seed funding. Breyer Capital, Digital Currency Group, GoldenTree, Hivemind, and Union Square Ventures participated in the round. (CoinDesk)

  • February 8: Virtual: The changing role of the CIO, with Honeywell chief digital technology officer Sheila Jordan, ServiceNow CIO, Chris Bedis, and others. Hosted by Protocol. Register here.

  • February 9: Virtual: Crypto regulation: from buyer beware to federal oversight, with Blockchain Association executive director Kristin Smith, Inx general counsel Cathy Yoon, and others. Hosted by Protocol. Register here.

  • February 10: Virtual: How to Raise Funding and Scale a Startup, with New York Angels founder David S. Rose, Caribu CEO Maxeme Tuchman, and more. Hosted by DownToDash and Innovatemap. Register here.

  • February 10: Virtual: Nailing the Investor Pitch: A Workshop for startup Founders, with 37 Angels investor Julie Lerner, Speakable CEO Will Carlin, and One Perfect Pitch coach Marie Perruchet. Hosted by NY Tech Alliance. Register here.

Any feedback or suggestions of things to add? Get in touch here. Was this digest forwarded to you? Sign up to receive it directly here.