Our Blog

Daily Briefing – 365

Post: Aug. 25, 2021

Reckoning – NY Adds 12,000 Deaths to Publicized COVID Tally

New York’s new governor, Kathy Hochul acknowledged on her first day in office that the state has had nearly 12,000 more deaths from COVID-19 than Cuomo told the public. “The public deserves a clear, honest picture of what’s happening. And that’s whether it’s good or bad, they need to know the truth. And that’s how we restore confidence,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said on NPR.

In its first daily update on the outbreak Tuesday evening, Hochul’s office reported that nearly 55,400 people have died of the coronavirus in New York. That’s up from about 43,400 that Cuomo reported to the public. The higher number is not entirely new. Federal health officials and some academic institutions tracking COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have been using the higher tally for many months because of known gaps in the data Cuomo had been choosing to publicize.

The Daily Briefing will be using this updated data beginning today. 

Read more at the AP


Hochul Taps State Sen. Brian Benjamin as Lieutenant Governor

New York governor, Kathy Hochul picked a state lawmaker from New York City to succeed her in her old post as lieutenant governor, according to a person familiar with the matter.

State Sen. Brian Benjamin, a Manhattan Democrat, was chosen after Ms. Hochul previously said she was considering several candidates from downstate, according to the person. Ms. Hochul, a Democrat from Buffalo, N.Y., had also said the need for diversity would factor into her decision.


Governor Hochul Announces Changes to Accelerate State Rent Relief Program

Governor Kathy Hochul announced a series of changes to both attract more applications and accelerate payments within New York State’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program. The state will invest an additional $1 million in marketing and outreach efforts to raise awareness about the rent relief program, the available funding, and the strong tenant eviction protections in place for those who apply. The Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, which administers the program, will analyze application data to target areas of the state with relatively low numbers of applications.

The Governor is also ordering a rapid review of the rent relief program’s workflow, as well as the reassignment of 100 contracted staff to work solely with landlords to complete pending applications, which will accelerate payments. Additionally, new data breaking down rent relief payments by county will be posted on OTDA’s website later this week to increase transparency. The website currently shows where applications are originating and basic demographics.

Read the Governor’s press release


Treasury: Roughly 90 Percent of Federal Rental Aid Still Untapped

The department revealed that just $5.1 billion of the $46 billion in rental and utility assistance allocated by the government has been used to prevent evictions for roughly 984,000 households. Most of the aid is still being held by the state and local groups responsible for distributing it.

State and local organizations provided aid for 341,000 households in July, a gain of 50,000 from the previous month, with about $1.7 billion in allocated aid. But the program has failed to reach millions of tenants facing eviction upon the October expiration of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s eviction moratorium.

Read more at The Hill


US COVID Update – Who’s Dying is Changing

U.S. deaths in the week ending Monday totaled 7,225. The face of who is dying is also changing quickly. Deaths are increasingly centered among white non-Hispanic people, a USA TODAY analysis of National Centers for Health Statistics data shows.

Most other racial and ethnic groups now have a smaller share of deaths, but white non-Hispanics, which represent about 61.1% of all deaths during the pandemic, made up 68.8% of the deaths reported so far in July and August.

Read more at USA Today


NYS Vaccine and COVID Update 

Vaccine Stats as of Wednesday August 25th:

One Vaccine Dose 

  • 66.4 of all New Yorkers – 12,816,392 (plus 33,653 from a day earlier) 
  • In the Hudson Valley 1,358,837 (plus 3,835) 

Fully Vaccinated

  • 59.3% of all New Yorkers – 11,537,738 are fully vaccinated (Plus 24,011)
  • In the Hudson Valley – 1,209,032 (plus 2,527) are fully vaccinated. 

The Governor  updated COVID data through Tuesday August 24th.  There were 16 COVID related deaths for a total of 55,423.

Hospitalizations:

  • Patients Currently in Hospital statewide: 2,143.

Seven Day Average Positivity Rate:

  • Statewide 3.13%
  • Mid-Hudson: 3.51%

Useful Websites:


J&J Says Covid-19 Booster Prompts Strong Immune Response

J&J said researchers found antibody levels increased ninefold among people who received a second dose of its vaccine, compared with one month after they received a first dose. The company didn’t specify exactly when or how many subjects received the second dose, though information posted about the clinical trial in an online government database indicates it was administered six months after the first shot.

J&J also said a booster is needed after eight months based on interim data it reported in the New England Journal of Medicine in July, which showed strong antibody responses through eight months after immunization with the J&J one-dose shot.

Read more at the WSJ


Delta Air Lines to Charge $200 Monthly to Workers Who Refuse Vaccines

Delta Air Lines plans to charge workers who refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccination an extra $200 per month for their health care insurance.  It comes as employers are trying to increase the rate of COVID vaccination among their workers. Some, like the state of California, Tyson Foods, CNN and United Airlines, are mandating vaccination. The $200-per-month surcharge will be applied beginning Nov. 1 to unvaccinated workers on Delta’s insurance plan.

Others are expected to impose insurance surcharges on unvaccinated workers, seeking to cover the increased costs of health care stemming from hospital bills those workers incur when they become infected. U

Read more at USA Today


How Manufacturers Have Been Innovating on Ways to Attract New Employees

Even if understaffed manufacturers have been able to hit most or all customer deadlines this year, continuing to operate with staffing shortages for too long can cause short- and long-term damage to workforces and therefore businesses. Requiring employees to work excessive overtime hours not only leads to employee burnout, but it also increases unplanned absences, work injuries, overuse of leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), additional compensation for overtime premiums, disengagement (with resulting lost productivity), and attrition. Unusually heavy workloads for an understaffed factory workforce can also attract union organizers.

In an effort to understand workforce challenges manufacturers face and how they are coping Ogletree Deakins’ Manufacturing Industry Group recently administered a benchmarking survey to which 40 manufacturers responded. Here is a summary of the highlights, along with some key takeaways for manufacturers: 

Read more at National Law Review


Volvo to Idle Gothenburg Plant Over Chip Shortage… Again

Volvo Cars will halt production at its Swedish plant in Torslanda, on the outskirts of Gothenburg, during next week due to the shortage of semiconductor chips, the automaker said. Volvo, which last month reported the best half-year sales and operating profit in the company’s 94-year history as demand for electrified cars grew, also warned in July that the ongoing shortage of microchips would negatively impact its results in the second half.

“Due to the current material shortage situation, triggered by a combination of global semiconductor shortages and new COVID-19 outbreaks, Volvo Cars has decided to pause production in Torslanda for the week of Aug 30-Sep 3,” Volvo said in an emailed statement.

Read more at Automotive News


VW Cuts Output at Wolfsburg Plant as Chip Shortage Bites

VW’s plant in Wolfsburg, Germany, its biggest factory globally, will work with just one shift from Monday, Aug. 23 through Friday. Audi, the group’s biggest profit contributor, will extend the summer break by one week at its two factories in Germany as semiconductor supply remains “volatile and tense.”

VW has halted production at the factory at other times this year because of semiconductor supply constraints. VW Group CEO Herbert Diess said during VW’s annual press conference in March that the automaker was unable to build 100,000 cars due to the chip shortage and it would not be able to make up for the shortfall this year.

Read more at Automotive News


COVID Shutdowns at Chinese Ports Squeeze Container Rates

shippers are likely to encounter reduced container availability and rising prices at key maritime hubs in the coming weeks, thanks to a continuing spate of Covid-19 outbreaks at ports in China and Vietnam.  The disruptions spring from a weeklong lockdown of the port of Yantian in May, and were since perpetuated by a separate closure of Ningbo port in August, Hamburg, Germany-based Container xChange said.

By the numbers, average container prices (defined as the average price of the transactions on the Container xChange platform covering all container sizes including 20 ft. and 40 ft. dry containers) at the port of Yantian jumped nearly three-fold from $5,515 in June to $15,336 this month. By comparison, container prices rose by much smaller increments at the ports of Shanghai and Qingdao over the same period, swelling at Shanghai from $4,468 to $5,570, and rising at Qingdao from $4,793 to $5,203.

Read more at Supply Chain Quarterly