Tech:NYC Digest: January 28

Tech:NYC Digest: January 28

January 28, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

Thursday, January 28, 2020As NYC works through another surge of the coronavirus, 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: First case of the South Africa strain confirmed in the US; Cuomo approves use of second dose supply in NYC to inoculate more people in hard hit communities; NYC public schools have attrited 43,000 students over the pandemic; read how Base is helping people collect personal health data from home in our latest Companies to Watch.

Confirmed Cases:

  • New York State: 1,374,480 (+13,398)

  • New York City: 582,551 (+6,102) 

  • Statewide Fatalities: 34,742 (+162)

  • NYC Positivity Rates:

    • NYS reports: 5.3 percent (-0.1 percent)

    • NYC reports: 8.1 percent (no change)

General Updates:

  • A bit of bright news: the number of new COVID infections across the US fell for the third straight week — and no states have gotten worse. (Axios) New cases are still averaging about 165,000 per day, roughly the same as they were in mid-December — down from the peak, but still a lot.

  • Meanwhile, data from the New York Times and public health experts show that people in the majority of US counties are at “extremely high risk” of contracting COVID-19, even as cases have fallen. Search your county here.

    • But the fight is on: to see how the vaccine rollout is going in New York and all other US states and territories here.

  • The risk posed by possible new variants is that the immune response elicited by current market vaccines may not be effective against it, which would require...an entirely new round of vaccine development and inoculation. (Wall Street Journal)  The strain found in South Africa has been detected in South Carolina, the first confirmed instance in the US. (CNN) The number of known cases of mutant COVID strains in New York is now up to 42. (New York Post)

  • Surprise! Mayor de Blasio announced that the final State of the City address of his term will broadcast tonight — but that’s about all the details we have. Keep an eye out on his pages here.

  • And lastly, Williamsburg-based artists created a billboard in Los Angeles with what they say is at once a love letter to the people who doubled down in NYC during the pandemic and a message for the people who fled: “New York is dead. Don’t come back.” (NBC New York)

One event worth your time: tomorrow at noon, Dr. Fauci will join a special chat with NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi to discuss the latest COVID-19 trends and vaccine plans. You can submit questions ahead of time and tune in live here.One read we love: Some Oregon healthcare workers were stuck on a highway in a snowstorm with expiring vaccines. So they gave shots to strangers caught in traffic. (Washington Post)

The latest results: Most of the population isn’t yet eligible for the vaccine, so Pres. Biden says until then “masks — not vaccines — are the best defense against COVID-19.” Public health officials, including Dr. Fauci, are going further, urging people to “double mask” for added protection (FYI, some combinations are better than others). Are you double masking?

Today’s poll: COVID cases are trending down in New York and nationwide, and yesterday Gov. Cuomo lifted many restrictions on activity across the state. However, new mutant strains threaten to increase transmission and future lockdowns as we simultaneously struggle with vaccine supply. Given these developments over the last month, how has your pandemic risk assessment changed?

  • *|SURVEY: I have a higher risk tolerance than before|*

  • *|SURVEY: I have the same risk tolerance as I did before|*

  • *|SURVEY: I have lower risk tolerance than before|*

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

Reopening:

  • The Biden Administration’s new COVID-19 Task Force confirmed, despite some fixes to vaccine distribution problems, it will be “months” before everyone who wants a vaccine can get one. (CNN) That echoes Gov. Cuomo’s projections that it will take around 17 weeks before New York can vaccinate everyone currently eligible and expand to other groups. (NY1)

  • In the meantime, Gov. Cuomo has given NYC the greenlight to dip into its stock of vaccines set aside for second doses to get more shots out to communities hardest hit by the virus. (NBC New York)

  • Enrollment in NYC public schools is down four percent, or roughly 43,000 students, according to the most recent city and state data. (Chalkbeat) The declines matter because a chunk of school budgets are tied to enrollment numbers.

  • Just months after NYC offered early voting for the first time in a presidential election, a new City Council bill aims to increase the number of early voting sites and expand operating hours in every district ahead of the June mayoral primary. (New York Daily News)

Related reading:

Reopening:

  • This week, Microsoft launched WorkLab, a resource and information destination for everything on the future of work. Explore their trends, insights, tips and more here and read their white paper here.

  • Darden Restaurants, owner of the Olive Garden chain among others, announced it will pay workers up to four hours paid sick leave to get their vaccine shots. (USA Today) It joins a growing list of companies and organizations doing the same.

Related reading:

Company to Watch:BASE

What does your company do?

Base founder and CEO Lola Priego: Base is an at-home lab testing and smart app combo empowering everyone to improve their sleep, stress, diet, and more with insights into their body’s data through key indicators: their blood and saliva. Members can either monitor the seasonal changes to their health or get to the root cause and fix symptoms with science-backed recommendations for your supplements, diet, and daily habits.Health and wellness has ballooned into a huge sector in recent years, and now especially through the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth, or just being able to do more of our care from home, has very quickly become a real driver of the industry. Do you think those trends will shape the future of healthcare more long-term — even after the pandemic ends?

LP: We’re looking at the changes to the health and wellness industry as building blocks that will continue to progress and change — things aren’t going back to how they used to be post-pandemic. People have started realizing that 1) telehealth and DTC health-focused startups are something they can trust, cautiously and through evidence; and 2) it’s more accessible and convenient for them. As these industries get better, it will be cheaper down the line, as well.Read the full interview here.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.

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

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