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Daily Briefing – 229

Post: Jan. 11, 2021

Phase 1B – New York Expands its COVID-19 Vaccine Pool By 3.2 Million People 

New York will now offer COVID-19 vaccines to a wider group of residents after the state’s previously strict eligibility guidelines meant medical providers were forced to throw out unused doses.

State authorities have investigated healthcare providers who may have violated its vaccination plans. Despite the previously strict criteria, hospitals in the state face a $100,000 fine if they don’t use their COVID-19 vaccine doses quickly enough. Cuomo announced the policy on January 4, adding that some of the state’s hospitals had used less than a fifth of their doses.

Read more at Business Insider


COVID and “Winter Cluster Plan” Update

Governor Cuomo issued a press release yesterday morning providing an overview of New York’s COVID-19 tracking data from Sunday, January 10th. 

Hospitalization tracking data for the Mid-Hudson region and the rest of the State are below.  

Hospitalizations Statewide

  • Patients Currently in Hospital in Region   =  8645
  • COVID Hospitalizations as Percent of Region Population =  .004%
  • Percent of Hospital Beds Available in State  = 33%

Hospitalizations Mid-Hudson Region: 

  • Patients Currently in Hospital in Region   =  1030
  • COVID Hospitalizations as Percent of Region Population =  .004%
  • Percent of Hospital Beds Available in Region  = 40%

ICU Beds Statewide

  • Total ICU Beds   =  5,804
  • Occupied ICU Beds =  4200
  • Percent of ICU Beds Available  = 26%

ICU Beds Mid-Hudson Region: 

  • Total ICU Beds   =  690
  • Occupied ICU Beds =  414
  • Percent of ICU Beds Available  = 40%

Other Data

  • Statewide Transmission Rate (R0): 1.08
  • Statewide Positivity Rate: 6.272%
  • Mid-Hudson Positivity Rate: 7.80%

Useful Websites:


Webinar With US Senator Charles Schumer – January, 14, 2021, 03:00pm – 4:00pm

Join The Manufacturing Alliance on Thursday, January 14th at 3 PM for a webinar with U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (NY), who could soon become Senate Majority Leader. Senator Schumer will be discussing the latest COVID-19 Federal Stimulus Package and his priorities for the new year.

Senator Schumer will also answer pre-submitted questions about the future of manufacturing. Please submit your questions by tomorrow afternoon to Tiffany at tiffanylatinog@macny.org.  There is no cost to attend, however space is limited and registration is required.

Click here to Register


The Full List of Joe Biden’s Cabinet Picks

Having campaigned on a pledge to build a cabinet “that looks like America,” Mr. Biden’s planned nominations have included historic firsts for women and racial minorities. All cabinet nominees will require confirmation in a closely divided Senate. Mr. Biden ran as a consensus builder, emphasizing his decades-long career in the Senate as a party moderate. His choices for top jobs in his administration have so far been well-known Washington figures, many of whom served in the Obama administration, signaling an emphasis on experience.

Mr. Biden and his team face an immediate challenge of steering the country out of a pandemic that had claimed more than 370,000 lives as of Saturday and an economic recession that has left millions jobless. Mr. Biden’s cabinet picks will play a crucial role in his plans to provide coronavirus relief, as well as in executing his domestic and foreign-policy priorities.

See the full list


Biden to Outline Covid-19 Relief Package Next Week

President-elect Joe Biden said Friday that he will be “laying out the groundwork” for trillions of dollars of Covid-19 relief next week, and that he would push for an increase in the federal minimum wage to at least $15 an hour. Mr. Biden spoke hours after the Labor Department reported that the U.S. lost 140,000 jobs in December amid the resurgence of the pandemic, ending seven months of job growth.

“The bottom line is the jobs report shows we need to provide more immediate relief for working families and businesses—now,” Mr. Biden said, before formally announcing additional members of his economic team.

Read more the WSJ


Monday Economic Report – Mfg. Jobs, Durable Goods, Construction and More

Manufacturing added 38,000 workers in December, rising for the eighth straight month and making the sector one of the bright spots in an otherwise disappointing (but expected) report. Yet, the manufacturing sector lost 557,000 workers in 2020, the largest annual decline since 2009 and ending three years of gains. The U.S. economy on a whole lost 140,000 workers in December, the first monthly decline in nonfarm payroll employment since April

Durable goods data have rebounded strongly since the pandemic. Over the past 12 months, new orders for durable goods have increased 3.9%, but with transportation equipment excluded, sales rose a solid 4.9% year-over-year.

Monday Economic Report 0111 2021


Women Accounted for 100% of the 140,000 Jobs Shed by the U.S. Economy in December

Women accounted for all of U.S. job losses in December, dramatically underscoring the pandemic’s unrelentingly disastrous impact on working women.

Actually, it’s even worse than that: Technically, women accounted for more than 111% of jobs lost last month. The U.S. economy lost a net 140,000 jobs in December, the first month since April that total payrolls declined, the Labor Department said Friday. But women lost 156,000 jobs overall during the month, while men gained 16,000 jobs, according to an analysis by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC).

Read more at Fortune


The Pandemic Could Amount to $10trn in Forgone GDP Over 2020-21

The economic toll of the covid-19 pandemic is incalculable. But let’s try anyway. A useful starting point is the semi-annual Global Economic Prospects report released this week by the World Bank. It calculates that the world economy probably shrank by 4.3% in 2020, a setback matched only by the Depression and the two world wars. But this dramatic figure still understates the cost. It measures the world economy’s fall from where it was before the pandemic, not from where it would have been had the virus not spread.

All Told the cost of covid-19 this year and last will amount to about $10.3trn in forgone output: goods and services the world could have produced had it remained unafflicted. That is, to put it mildly, a big number.

Read more at the Economist


BioNTech Boosts 2021 Vaccine Supply Forecast to 2 Billion Doses

German company BioNTech, which developed the first coronavirus vaccine approved in the West, said Monday it expects to produce two billion doses in 2021, up from the 1.3 billion previously forecast.   European regulators last week approved doctors drawing six doses from each vial, boosting dosage capacity by 20 percent.

The Mainz-based company, which developed the jab with US giant Pfizer, is planning to open a new factory in Marburg, Germany, in February, expected to ramp up production capacity by 750 million doses a year.   The site will join five other sites in Germany, Belgium and the US shared with Pfizer.  The company said it had shipped nearly 33 million doses by January 10, more than a month after Britain became the first Western nation to approve any vaccine on December 2.

Read more at IndustryWeek


2021 State of the State

Governor Cuomo began to deliver his State of the State Address this morning from the War Room in the State Capitol, outlining his 2021 agenda. A press release from the Governor’s office is below with details of the proposals highlighted in the speech. Governor Cuomo announced that he will be delivering three additional speeches in the coming days with additional proposals and details. The State of the State will be reflective of the following seven-point plan, announced this morning:

1, Defeat COVID, 2. Vaccinate New York, 3. Manage Short Term Economic Crisis, 4. Invest in the Future, 5. Transition to Green Energy, 6. Understand Long Term Effects of COVID, 7. Address Systemic Injustices. 

At this time the Governor has not released his State of the State book.  We will send a link as soon as it becomes available.  

Read the press release