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Tech:NYC Digest: March 18

Tech:NYC Digest: March 18

March 18, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

Thursday, March 18, 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: Variant strains become increasingly dominant in NYC; Yankee Stadium and Citi Field will expand to 20 percent capacity on opening days in early April; de Blasio gets his J&J jab at City Hall; Google announces plans to invest $250M in NYC real estate projects this year.

By the Numbers:

New York State: 1,757,493 (+7,796)
New York City: 780,038 (+4,048)
Statewide Fatalities: 39,748 (+57)
NYC Positivity Rates:
- NYS reports: 4.2 percent (no change)
- NYC reports: 6.4 percent (no change)
Vaccine Progress:
- NYS first doses administered: 4,772,029 (+80,772)
- NYC first doses administered: 1,662,636 (+32,582)

General Updates:

The variant strains of the coronavirus are the primary concern for city officials monitoring the threat of ongoing spread — 65 percent of all new cases in the last week were caused by variant strains, up from 52 percent the week prior.
- Those strains are largely responsible for trends that show average positivity rates across the state have plateaued, despite intensive vaccination efforts. (Washington Post)
- New cases per capita are at least double the national average in New York and New Jersey, and according to city data, the positivity rate in NYC hasn’t dipped below six percent in months. (New York Times)
- The good news is that public health officials say it’s too soon to worry about another “wave” of COVID-19, and they don’t expect a return to the level of cases the state saw during the winter holidays.
Several state governments and industry leaders have been pressing the Biden administration to develop a federal standard for “vaccine passports,” but the White House is leery of the federal government being involved in issuing the credentials or storing the data. (POLITICO)
- New York is currently piloting an “Excelsior Pass” app, similar to an online airline boarding pass, that verifies testing or vaccination records for patrons at Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center. (NYS)
Pres. Biden is sending millions of surplus doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico and Canada, in a move of “vaccine diplomacy” with the countries. (New York Times)
- Tens of millions of AstraZeneca doses are sitting in US warehouses, but the shot hasn’t yet been approved for emergency use by the FDA. (New York Magazine)
- Several European countries have suspended use of the vaccine after a number of blood-clotting incidents surfaced concerns about harmful side effects, raising new questions about when the US might approve it — if at all. (New York Post) The European Union’s top regulator, however, said there was no significant sign linking the vaccine to harmful reactions. (Wall Street Journal)

The latest results: The ongoing progress of the vaccine rollout is boosting confidence among employers that they’ll be able to bring workers back as early as this summer, and with that, many are hoping to also reinstate their summer internship programs. What are your company’s plans for its summer internship program?

Today's poll

: Virtual events have been the primary way for people to gather professionally through the pandemic, and they’re likely here to stay beyond the pandemic. But many employees are eager to return to the in-person interactions that go along with live events. When it’s safe to resume industry events and other professional gatherings, what is your interest in doing so?

*|SURVEY: I think I will go to more in-person professional events than I did pre-pandemic|*
*|SURVEY: I think I will go to the same amount of in-person professional events as I did pre-pandemic|*
*|SURVEY: I think I will go to less in-person professional events than I did pre-pandemic|*
*|SURVEY: I'm not sure / I don't attend professional events|*

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

Pilot programs in New York to reopen sports stadiums with limited in-person fans have been a success and will be permitted to expand:
- Beginning April 1st, large sports venues may welcome fans back at 10 percent capacity for indoor events and 20 percent for outdoor events (including performing arts spaces).
- Proof of a negative test or vaccination will be required of all attendees in either environment.
- That means Yankee Stadium will reopen to 10,850 fans for the Yankees opening day game on April 1st, and Citi Field will reopen to 8,384 fans for the Mets opening day game on April 8th. (NY State of Politics)
The NYC Council today unanimously passed a bill this afternoon to require a single, consolidated website to search for and schedule vaccine appointments across all city providers.
- The website will allow people to pre-register for appointment notifications and be alerted when availability opens up. (Twitter)
New York will receive $335 million in new federal funding to increase coronavirus testing capacity in K-12 schools. The additional funding is an effort to help public school systems meet their reopening targets by the beginning of the next academic year. (Times Union)
Sixteen additional pop-up vaccination sites, including eight in NYC, will come online at churches, public housing developments, and community centers in the coming week. 145 pop-up sites are already up and running, and as federal vaccine supply increases, additional sites will open at all remaining NYCHA developments. (NYS)
Mayor de Blasio received his shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine today at City Hall. More than three million vaccine doses have been administered in New York City since December. (New York Post)