Daily Briefing – 258

Post: Mar. 8, 2021

COVID Update

Governor Cuomo issued a press release yesterday morning providing an overview of New York’s COVID-19 tracking data from Sunday March 7th.

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

Hospitalizations

Patients Currently in Hospital statewide: 4,830
Hospitalizations Mid-Hudson Region: 490

ICU Beds In Use (All Uses)

Occupied ICU Beds Statewide: 4,070
Occupied ICU Beds Mid-Hudson Region: 396

Other Data

Statewide Positivity Rate: 3.19%
Mid-Hudson Positivity Rate: 4.27%

Useful Websites:

Cuomo Signs Bill “Limiting” Emergency Powers

Governor Andrew Cuomo signed off on a bill that limits his emergency pandemic powers Monday morning.

This process means Governor Cuomo can no longer sign new mandates on his own, like when he reduced capacity in restaurants, without approval from the state legislature. But there is a caveat. The governor is able to extend already existing directives like the mask mandate. Those powers will expire automatically once the state of emergency expires in April, or sooner if the legislature chooses to do so.

NYS Vaccine Update – 10 Additional Mass Sites to Open

Governor Cuomo announced yesterday that 10 Additional State-Run Mass Vaccination Sites are to open in the coming weeks including 2 in the Hudson Valley at SUNY Orange in Middletown and the Ulster County Fairgrounds in New Paltz.

As of 11 am Monday, New York’s health care distribution sites have received 4,227,090 first doses and administered 89 percent or 3,746,905 first dose vaccinations. In total the state has administered and 86 percent of first and second doses (5,640,706) of the 6,541,110 received. In the Mid-Hudson Region a cumulative total of 626,065 first and second doses have been distributed, 519,605 administered (83 percent).

US Vaccination Rollout – NPR Tracker Shows How Efficiently States are Using their Vaccine Allocation

Since vaccine distribution began in the U.S. on Dec. 14, more than 90 million doses have been administered, reaching 17.7% of the total U.S. population, according to federal data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The U.S. is currently administering over 2.2 million shots a day.

Getting millions of people vaccinated, in order of priority, is a big logistical challenge for states. As a result, there’s often a delay between when states receive their federal shipments of vaccines and when they get all the shots into people’s arms. The CDC says its data may reflect a reporting lag of up to five days.

Visit the NPR Vaccine Tracker

WMC Health Interactive Directory Helps Hudson Valley Residents Find COVID-19 Vaccination.

The directory allows the user to search an interactive map by location type, such as pharmacy or health clinic, location name and county. Clicking on a location serves up detailed information about that location, who might be eligible to receive a vaccine at that location, and how to register for an appointment. The directory does not represent the actual inventory of vaccine at each location, only that a location has received a recent distribution, or a distribution sometime in the past. Each location controls its own schedule and makes its own appointments. This directory covers the geography of the Hudson Valley HUB.

Visit the directory

House Poised To Pass $1.9 Trillion Relief Bill On Today

House Democrats are expected to pass the final version of a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package on Tuesday. The Senate voted 50-49 to approve the plan on Saturday, with all Democrats voting in support of the measure — and all Republicans opposed — following a marathon debate of more than 24 hours. In a statement on Saturday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said he expects the president to be able to sign the legislation early this week.

The colossal package would bring a new round of payments to Americans still battling against the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, and it includes an increase to the child tax credit and an extension of supplemental unemployment benefits through Sept. 6. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said “Democrats decided their top priority wasn’t pandemic relief, it was their Washington wish list. It was jamming through unrelated policy changes they couldn’t pass honestly. A colossal missed opportunity for our nation.”

CDC Says Fully Vaccinated People Can Gather in Small Groups Without Masks

The CDC said Monday that fully vaccinated people should continue to take precautions in most circumstances to prevent the spread of the virus that causes Covid-19. People who are fully immunized should continue to wear masks and keep their distance from others in public or while visiting unvaccinated people at higher risk for severe cases of Covid-19, the CDC said.

It is possible that vaccinated people could still get infected by the virus and transmit it to others who are at risk for severe disease, public-health experts say. But early research suggests that in addition to protecting against severe cases of Covid-19 that could lead to hospitalization or death, authorized vaccines likely also make people less vulnerable to infection and potentially less likely to spread the virus, the CDC said.

Brent Crude Hovers Just Under $70 After Saudi Oil Facilities Attacked

The price of Brent crude rose above $70 a barrel for the first time in 14 months after Saudi Arabia said its oil facilities had been attacked. On Sunday Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who also bombed military targets, fired 14 drones and eight missiles. Saudi’s energy ministry, which reported no casualties or loss of property, lambasted the attacks on global energy security.

“Possible damage at Ras Tanura in particular is generating concern on the oil market, as this is home to Saudi Arabia’s biggest oil storage facility and oil export terminal,” said Eugen Weinberg, head of commodity research at Commerzbank, in a note to clients.

Yellen Expects U.S. Economy to Return to Full Employment in 2022

In an interview on MSNBC U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday that President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package will provide enough resources to fuel a “very strong” U.S. economic recovery, but will not address longstanding inequality problems. Ms. Yellen reiterated that she doesn’t expect the spending to cause the economy to overheat, resulting in high inflation and interest rates.

“I’m anticipating, if all goes well, that our economy will be back to full employment, where we were before the pandemic, next year.” The Secretary said.

NAM Manufacturing Economy Report- Jobs, Productivity, Output All Improving

Manufacturing employment increased by 21,000 in February, rising for the ninth time in the past 10 months. Overall, the manufacturing sector remains a bright spot in the U.S. economy, with expanding demand and production and hiring moving in the right direction. With that said, manufacturing employment has fallen by 561,000 workers over the past 12 months.

Manufacturing labor productivity rose 5.0% at the annual rate in the fourth quarter with strong rebounds in output, both for durable and nondurable goods, according to revised data.

Monday Economic Report 0308 2021

Scream, Not Swab: Dutch Inventor Hopes He Discovered a New Test For COVID

A Dutch entrepreneur named Peter van Wees has come up with a novel idea for COVID testing. In lieu of nasal (or the other end, if you’re visiting China) swabs, van Wees has created an airlocked cabin in which you’re supposed to stand and scream. An industrial air purifier then collects your screamed particles, which are checked for the coronavirus. Getting tested and getting to vent after a year of this pandemic? Genius

How to Fix the COVID-Damaged Pipeline for Women in Leadership

In the United States alone, a National Women’s Law Center analysis found that at least 5 million women have lost their jobs since the onset of COVID-19, putting female participation at its lowest rate since 1988. Already enormous in scale, the losses continue to add up. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported some 275,000 women left the country’s labor market in January, compared to just 71,000 men.

Broadly speaking, it’s the men and women in leadership ranks who can initiate the most significant organizational changes. But even women at that level have been hit hard by the pandemic. New research from the IBM Institute for Business Value shows that fewer women today hold high-level executive and managerial roles than at the end of 2019. During that same period, the pipeline of women in senior manager and senior vice president roles both shrank by five percentage points, from 25% and 18% respectively in 2019, to 20% and 13% today

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