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Tech:NYC Digest: November 30

Tech:NYC Digest: November 30

November 30, 2020 • Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes

Monday, November 30, 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: Some NYC schools will reopen next Monday following widespread criticism of shutdown; Congress enters short legislative session, stimulus takes priority; Moderna files for emergency use authorization, pledges 20 million doses by year’s end; Cuomo adds new protocols to help ease hospital overcrowding.

Confirmed Cases:

New York State: 647,980 (+6,819)
New York City: 311,979 (+2,504)
Statewide Fatalities: 26,747 (+54)
NYC Positivity Rates:
- NYS reports: 2.9 percent (+0.1 percent)
- NYC reports: 4.0 percent (+0.1 percent)

General Updates:

New York is now up to a statewide positivity rate of 4.57 percent. (New York Times) The state is facing a general “sustained COVID-19 spread,” according to Gov. Cuomo, as opposed to clustered spread that can be isolated to certain hotspots and events. (New York Daily News)
That spread will likely continue to worsen, as people return from Thanksgiving travel and the December holiday season begins. It could take another week or two before we will know the full impact that the Thanksgiving holiday had on caseloads, but Gov. Cuomo said that about 65 percent of all new cases are the result of “small gathering spread.” (New York Post) Similar warnings are being issued nationwide, and Dr. Fauci said he expects a “surge superimposed on the surge that we’re already in.” (The Hill)
NYC will reopen public elementary schools next week, as Mayor de Blasio reworks the city’s rule that they remain closed while the city is above a three percent positivity rate. (New York Times) More on that below.
Moderna announced it will file for emergency use authorization with the FDA today for its coronavirus vaccine. The filing comes after new data shows it has a 94 percent efficacy rate. (CNBC) Pfizer filed for its authorization earlier this month, paving the way for the US to have two vaccines in distribution by the end of the year. Moderna plans to have 20 million doses in the US by the end of 2020 and aims to manufacture 500 million to one billion in 2021 for global use.
Congress took some initial steps last week to avert a government shutdown next month. (POLITICO) But lawmakers now return from the holiday recess facing more pressure to pass a lame duck session stimulus bill as unemployment, housing, and student loan relief measures are set to expire in December. (Axios) They are also staring down a Dec. 11 deadline to pass a larger government spending bill. (CNBC)
At least there’s one piece of good news: SantaCon is cancelled.

One good read: How to Build a Better Post-Pandemic New York City (New York Times)

Yesterday's results: A new Axios-Ipsos poll shows six in 10 Americans are dialing back this year’s Thanksgiving plans because of the pandemic. Did you change your Thanksgiving plans as a result of the recent COVID-19 spikes?

Today's poll

: Two drugmakers have now applied to the FDA for emergency use authorization, meaning that there could potentially be millions of COVID-19 vaccines available across the US as soon as next month. New York and other state governments are creating distribution protocols, and pharmacies and grocers are adding freezers and training staff

to handle a large vaccine drive

. When do you think the vaccine will be available to you?

*|SURVEY: Before the end of the year|*
*|SURVEY: In the first quarter of 2021|*
*|SURVEY: Sometime in the spring|*
*|SURVEY: Not until summer or later|*

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

Reopening:

Public elementary schools in NYC will reopen beginning next Monday. (POLITICO) 3K, pre-K, and grade K-5 students can return beginning Dec. 7, and special education students at all levels can return beginning Dec. 10.
- Mayor de Blasio is abandoning the three percent threshold the city used to trigger school closures, following criticism that positivity rates in schools were significantly lower than that among the general communities the schools are in.
- Students must receive a negative COVID test before they can return, and testing consent forms will also be required so students can continue to be tested on a rotating weekly basis.
- About 190,000 students are expected to return for in-person instruction. That number is significantly lower than before, largely due to the number of students who have now opted to remain all remote. As a result, in many locations, students will be able to return to a full five-day week of in-person instruction. (New York Post)
- Going forward, NYC public schools will now assess closures with a school-by-school approach that requires schools in “orange” and “red” hotspot zones to close, but allows them to reopen after adequate testing protocols are implemented.
- Mayor de Blasio said that middle and high school students won’t return to classrooms until sometime next year. (Gothamist)
Gov. Cuomo said today that his top concern is the state’s rapidly increasing number of COVID-related hospitalizations, which currently sits at more than 3,500 patients. (NBC New York) The hospitalization rate, as well as the availability and demand levels at hospitals, will now be factored into determining if an area gets one of the yellow, orange, or red cluster zone designations by the state. (POLITICO)
- Gov. Cuomo is also adding an emergency stop provision, which would immediately return an area to the lockdown measures like we had at the peak of the pandemic in cases where a hospital system is too overwhelmed. Hospitals have been directed to prepare an additional 50 percent of bed capacity for COVID-19 patients.
NYC health officials are ramping up testing to prepare for an expected surge in new cases during the holiday season. Pop-up testing sites at JFK and LGA airports will remain open through the holiday season, and self-test sites have been set up at Penn Station and the Port Authority Bus Terminal. (Wall Street Journal)
NYC is launching a $35 million relief loan program to support small businesses hit by the pandemic through the holiday gift-buying season. (Crain’s NY)
The city is launching a new tool that will begin posting the wait times at the 51 COVID testing sites in the Health + Hospital system so New Yorkers can get to sites with shorter lines. The tool goes live this afternoon and updates every two hours here.