WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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WPCNR CORONAVIRUS REPORT. From the NYS WorkBook Covid-19 Tracker. December 28, 2020 UPDATED 4 PM EST:

In the last 7 Days Sunday to Sunday, the number of persons in Westchester County testing positive for Coronavirus was 4015 (5.7%) of 71,189 tested From Sunday December 20 through Sunday, December 27.

Sunday Positives reported today as of 2 PM

The Infection Rate is a decrease from the 6% infection rate the county has been averaging the last 3 weeks.

For comparison purposes, last Tuesday December 22, 11, 368 Westchester persons were tested and 651 came back positive with the corona virus, an infection rate of 5.7%, as reported by the NYS Covid-19 Tracker website.

The Westchester infection rate as of last Tuesday was just below 6%. Since December 1, 13,340 Westchesterites had tested positive, a per day new Covid case average of 606 new Covid Positives a day.) The 556 average a day is an 8% decrease in the number of cases a day (606 compared to 556).

A reminder, The 3,587 new infections though mean that if those persons do not maintain strict quarantines, they could infect 2 more persons each or 3 or 4, continuing to spread the virus exponentially by double or triple those 3,587 persons through their families, friends or persons they come in contact with. They of all persons should wear a mask with others.

Another insight: If the Westchester hospitalization rate continues at 4% to 5%. this indicates that 160 to 200 of those 4,015 people could become hospitalized continuing to put pressure on the county hospitals were reported to have enough bed capacity to handle potential hospitalizations.

With a new positive rate of 556 new positives a day, this means that at a 4 to 5 % hospitalization rate, 27 people could be hospitalized within a 2 week period from just one day of 551 new positives. That would translate out of each day of 550 positives, 189 new hospitalizations within 15 days. If the positive rate continues at the 550 a day level, or worse increases in spread, the hospitals may find their capacities to care for covid patients dwindling. Controlling covid depends on stopping the spread of the disease.

County Executive George Latimer in his Covid Briefing today reported 392 hospitalizations, which he said were running between 4 to 5% of active cases. He also noted the number of deaths has been increasing the last 4 weeks in the county. He also said that at 2,500 hospital beds available in Westchester County for covid treatment he felt the present hospitalization rate was “manageable.”

In the Q. & A portion of the briefing Mr. Latimer said he advocated a more logical approach to restaurant restrictions on the City of Port Chester where restaurants are shut down because of Port Chester being a yellow zone and hoped restaurants with social distancing, mask enforcement and plexiglass between tables could be allowed to open, but said that was up to Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

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WPCNR LABOR LAW JOURNAL. From the Service Employs International 32BJ. December 23, 2020:

On Wednesday, Westchester County Chair of the Board of Legislators, Benjamin Boykin and the County’s 17 other legislators sent a letter to Kite Realty which is changing to a non union cleaning service, supporting the Service Employees International 32BJ workers who currently lean the City Center in White Plains, facing loss of their jobs. They called on Kite Realty to retain the current contract. Here is the text of that letter:

“We, the undersigned members of the Westchester County Board of Legislators, hereby ask Kite Realty to insure that the cleaning staff at City Center be treated fairly, in accordance with the Westchester County Displaced Workers Law,” stated the letter. ” We further ask that the union contract, which provides that City Center staff earn as much as other shopping malls in downtown White Plains, be duly renewed.”

Carrying signs that said, “Kite Realty: Stop Scrooging Mall Cleaners,” the workers informed shoppers at the busy shopping center of their situation, as they try to retain their jobs in the middle as the holidays approach and as the uncertainty and risk of the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

“I’m so worried about being able to support my daughter, my mother and my sister who has lost her job,” said Maria Baron, a native of Colombia who has worked as a cleaner at the mall for two years. “All my co-workers are in similar situations, and this is not fair to do in such a difficult year.”

Kite Realty Group, which owns the mall, told workers last week that a new, non-union contractor would be starting on January 1, 2021, and gave them no information as to whether they would be keeping their jobs.

Under the Westchester County Displaced Service Employees Protection Act, contractors coming in to a union account are required to offer continued employment to existing service workers.

Earlier this week, the cleaners delivered a petition to the mall owners asking to keep their jobs with the good wages and benefits they have had as members of SEIU 32BJ.

“These essential workers have been keeping the mall clean and safe throughout the pandemic, and been able to support their families during this difficult period,” said Lenore Friedlaender, Assistant to the President of 32BJ and head of the union in the Hudson Valley. “Many of them are supporting multiple family members who have been in distress, and They deserve better than to be booted at the worst of times.”

Kite Realty Group, a real estate investment trust based in Indiana, operates 89 malls and other properties, primarily in the south and Midwest. City Center is its only mall property in New York.

Gladiator, the incoming contractor, has not provided a written job offer to the current cleaners as required by the law, nor has the cleaning company announced whether they will retain all of the workers, or what the employees’ pay and benefits will be. 

In an initial conversation with 32BJ SEIU, a Gladiator representative said the new contractor was planning to reduce the staffing from the current 14 cleaners to six cleaners. The Gladiator representative would not state whether his company would honor the terms of the current union contract in effect at the mall. 

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 WPCNR GOVERNOR ANDREW M. CUOMO CORONA VIRUS REPORT. December 22, 2020:

(Editor’s Note: Westchester County Tested 8,910 persons Monday. There were 536 Westchester persons found to test positive an 6% of those tested.

The total of new persons testing positive in the 21 Days since December 1 to 12,689 in 21 days, more than doubling the positives on December 1st. (10,536) The new infections have been averaging 604 a day since December 1st. The infection rate average over the last 21 days: 6% )

Now to the Governor’s message:

With Christmas and Kwanzaa coming up this week, followed by New Year’s Eve, we all need to do our part to stop the spread. And we can do so by celebrating in different ways this year.

This year I encourage New Yorkers to celebrate smart so the virus doesn’t spread to the point where the hospital capacity is at risk. It’s been a long year and I do hope New Yorkers celebrate the holidays—but please celebrate smart. 

Photo of the Day: The illuminated Christmas Tree at Empire State Plaza in Albany, NY (Photo by Mike Groll) 

Here’s what else you need to know tonight: 

1. New York’s Wadsworth Laboratory has begun aggressive research of the new, more contagious COVID-19 strain discovered in the U.K. Already, Wadsworth has looked at more than 3,700 virus sequences identified in New York. It has yet to find the U.K. variant present in any of the random samples

. Additionally, Wadsworth and the Department of Health have made agreements with six hospitals from across the State to obtain additional samples for further research and are making arrangements with other hospitals to do the same. If the variant is already here, we want to know, and we want to be able to aggressively trace it. 

2. To date, 50,000 doses of the vaccine have been administered throughout New York. The state has received 630,000 doses thus far and expects to receive another 300,000 doses next week.

 3. Virgin Atlantic has also agreed to require pre-departure COVID tests before passengers leave from the U.K. to New York. This is the third major airline to require a COVID-19 test before allowing passengers to board planes traveling from the United Kingdom to New York. I thank British Airways, Delta Airlines and Virgin Atlantic for this agreement.

 4. Total hospitalizations rose to 6,661. Of the 164,868 tests reported yesterday, 9,716, or 5.89 percent, were positive. There were 1,126 patients in ICU yesterday, up 31 from the previous day. Of them, 614 are intubated. Sadly, we lost 139 New Yorkers to the virus. 

5. It’s important we continue our vaccination program through the holidays. With Christmas and Kwanzaa rapidly approaching, I call on hospitals, nursing homes, and medical personnel to continue providing vaccinations throughout the holidays to ensure nursing home patients and frontline health care workers are protected as quickly as possible.

 Tonight’s “Deep Breath Moment”: Last night, stargazers and photographers looked up at the night sky to witness “The Great Conjunction,” a celestial phenomenon where Saturn and Jupiter appear extremely close together in the sky. Also dubbed “The Christmas Star,” an event of this caliber last occurred 800 years ago. The two planets won’t appear this close together again until 2080.  

Saturn and Jupiter with The Milky Way viewed from Thailand (Photo by Chakarin Wattanamongkol/Getty Images) 

If you were forwarded this email, you can subscribe to New York State’s Coronavirus Updates here. 

Ever Upward, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo