Daily Update 99
Cuomo Delays Indoor Dining in New York City, Announces State Will Form Enforcement Department
Governor Cuomo announced yesterday the State is expanding testing eligibility to all New Yorkers and encouraged everyone to go get tested. Testing is key to keeping the infection rate low. The State’s testing capacity currently outpaces citizen demand. Today, New York will hit 4 million total tests completed since March.
The Governor also announced that the State will create an enforcement department to supplement local enforcement departments, but it is still the primary responsibility of local governments and departments to enforce.
New York City is on track to enter phase three on Monday, July 6th. New York City specific phase three guidelines have not been released at this time. Because there has been a lack of compliance with social distancing indoor dining will be delayed for New York City entering phase three until the facts change and it is safe and prudent to do so. The Governor called upon citizens, establishments, and the local authorities to step up and help. The Governor is also concerned with travelers entering New York City from other states with high infection rates.
The Governor also chimed in on air conditioning filtration, police funding, federal funding and the federal response to the virus.
U.S. Manufacturing Activity Hits 14-Month High
The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said on Wednesday its index of national factory activity jumped to a reading of 52.6 last month from 43.1 in May. That was the strongest since April 2019 and ended three straight months of contraction. A reading above 50 indicates growth in manufacturing, which accounts for 11% of the U.S. economy. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the index rising to 49.5 in June.
Global Manufacturing Shows Fresh Signs of Recovery
Factory activity around the world showed further signs of recovery in June as governments eased restrictions designed to contain the coronavirus, but weak demand still weighed on production and employment, according to surveys of purchasing managers. According to IHS Markit manufacturing sectors returned to growth in a number of countries, including France, the U.K., Germany, Malaysia, Vietnam, Australia and Ireland.
“We certainly have a recovery,” said Patrick Artus, chief economist at French bank Natixis. “In June, the recovery seems to be faster than we expected.”
USMCA Entered Into Force Yesterday
The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) came into effect on Wednesday in a political and diplomatic environment radically different from the one that brought the three countries together under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. The deal puts in new rules around digital trade, makes changes in point of origin rules that determine what products can be traded across borders without tariffs, and rewrites labor enforcement mechanisms. It is expected to boost the U.S. auto and agricultural industries, among others.
Covid-19 Vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech Shows Positive Results
An experimental Covid-19 vaccine being developed by the drug giant Pfizer and the biotech firm BioNTech spurred immune responses in healthy patients, but also caused fever and other side effects, especially at higher doses. The vaccine generated antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, and some of these antibodies were neutralizing, meaning that they appear to prevent the virus from functioning. Levels of neutralizing antibodies were 1.8 to 2.8 times the level of that in the recovered patients.
Survey: Recruiters Expect Hiring Boon in July
A survey by Recruiter shows 51.4% of recruiters expect to be busier and to be hiring more during the next 30 days, while 68% of respondents expect to be recruiting more during the next 90 days. The average recruiter worked on 20 open positions in June, compared with 15 in May and 12 in April.
Read the full story at Recruiter
Black Lives Matter Protests Did Not Cause an Uptick in Covid-19 Cases As Stay-At-Home Tendencies Actually Increased
The available evidence suggests that this month’s Black Lives Matter protests have not contributed to a surge in covid-19 cases. In a new working paper, researchers from Bentley University, the University of Colorado and San Diego State University used mobile-phone data from SafeGraph, a geolocation data firm, and covid-19 case data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine whether the protests were associated with less social-distancing behavior and more covid-19 cases. In fact, the opposite was true. Protests were actually associated with an increase in social-distancing behavior; for example, residents overall spent an additional 0.18 hours, or 11 minutes, per day at home (see chart). In other words, any time that residents spent protesting in the streets was more than offset by time other people spent baking bread and watching Netflix.
Read more and view the graphics at The Economist
