Hospitalizations for Coronavirus Rising Throughout the State, 80% LESS than the Hospitalizations for Covid at its Highest in the Spring.

WPCNR CUOMO CORONAVIRUS REPORT. From Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. December 3, 2020:

Hospitalizations due to COVID continue to increase throughout the State. The total number of hospital beds in NY is about 53,000—currently 35,000 of those beds are occupied by patients, about 4,000 of whom are COVID patients.

For context, at the height of the pandemic in the spring, we had about 19,000 people hospitalized with COVID. (Editor’s Note: 80% More than the present level of hospitalizations).

The next stage of the battle with COVID is going to be vaccine distribution and vaccine acceptance.

The vaccine is the light at the end of the tunnel. We just have to get there, and we have to get there with as little loss of life as possible. We must do our best to keep the virus from spreading any further.

Wear a mask, avoid gatherings (both indoor AND outdoor), social distance and wash your hands. 


Here’s what else you need to know tonight:

1. The statewide positivity rate ticked up to 4.84 percent yesterday. There were 9,855 positive cases from 203,440 tests reported yesterday.

The positivity rate in the micro-cluster focus areas was 5.91 percent. Excluding these areas, it was 4.49 percent.

 2. Total hospitalizations rose to 4,063. There were 783 patients in ICU yesterday, up 41 from the previous day. Of them, 377 are intubated. Sadly, we lost 61 New Yorkers to the virus.  

3. The State is launching 150 new rapid testing sites in partnership with Prescryptive Health. The partnership will help expand testing capacity in areas across the State where testing access is limited.

Residents can find participating sites, schedule a test, receive results and follow-up with licenses clinicians directly from their mobile device. All testing sites will be searchable on the State’s COVID test website and appointments for these sites will also be available at www.prescryptive.com. 

4. I will sign an Executive Order expanding eligibility for New York State’s COVID Rent Relief Program and reopening the application window. This Executive Order will expand the program’s eligibility so more rent relief can be provided to New Yorkers and additional details will be available in the coming days.  

Tonight’s “Deep Breath Moment”: Celebrity Chef David Chang, owner of the Momofuku restaurant group, became the first celebrity to win $1 million on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”. The prize money will be donated to the Southern Smoke Foundation, an emergency relief fund for restaurant industry workers impacted by the pandemic. 

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

Ever Upward, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo 
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Cuomo on Covid: Vacines in 2 Weeks.

WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. DECEMBER 2, 2020:

The federal government has informed us that New York will be getting its first 170,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in the coming weeks. If all safety and efficacy approvals are granted, we expect to receive these vaccines doses—from the New York pharmaceutical company Pfizer—on December 15.

The State expects additional doses of both the Pfizer-developed vaccine and the Moderna-developed vaccine this month.  Following FDA approval, the NY COVID-19 Clinical Advisory Task Force will look at the data and provide an additional level of review to the vaccine. This review will not delay distribution of the vaccine and will simply be another safety measure that ensures we can all trust in the vaccine.

The COVID-19 Clinical Advisory Task Force is made up of health experts and medical professionals and is co-chaired by Dr. Charles Rice, the winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Healthcare workers and nursing home residents will be the first groups of people to receive the vaccine.

For most New Yorkers, though, the vaccine is still months away—and we are faced with a set of challenges to overcome before we get it. Hospitalizations are climbing across the state, and holiday social activity is certain to worsen this trend. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but in the winter we must fight harder than ever to slow the spread and save lives. Here’s what else you need to know tonight: 

1. The statewide positivity rate dropped slightly to 4.63 percent yesterday. There were 8,973 positive cases from 193,551 tests reported yesterday. The positivity rate in the micro-cluster focus areas was 5.88 percent. Excluding these areas, it was 4.21 percent. 

2. Total hospitalizations rose to 3,924. There were 742 patients in ICU yesterday, up 24 from the previous day. Of them, 373 are intubated. Sadly, we lost 69 New Yorkers to the virus.  

3. Starting next week, I will resume holding scheduled COVID briefings. Instead of daily briefings, this time the briefings will be held on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Briefings are always streamed online at ny.gov, and are additionally broadcast on Twitter and Facebook Live.   

 4. We are seeing an alarming rise in COVID cases that trace back to “living room spread.” New York’s latest contact tracing data shows that 70 percent of new COVID-19 cases originate from households and small gatherings. Today, the State released a new PSA highlighting the dangers of COVID spread in these smaller, indoor settings. Watch the PSA here.  

5. We’ve seen a 262 percent increase in hospitalizations in Western NY over the past three weeks. Even though the region continues to have the highest positivity rate in the state, hospitalizations are increasing across all of New York’s significantly. I implore all New Yorkers to please follow health guidelines—wear a mask, socially distance, get tested, wash your hands and stop the spread.  

Tonight’s “Deep Breath Moment”: Thanksgiving is a tradition that can be celebrated by all members of the American family—including canine and feline members. Last week, Rob and Hillary Dunn of Utica, NY, served “Thanksgiving dinners” to around 80 dogs and 150 cats at the Stevens Swan Humane Society. Each dog received a vet-approved plate of white turkey meat (no bones), canned sodium-free green beans, and canned pumpkin. The couple prepared the meals in the days leading up to the holiday, doing their best to make as many meals for the animals as possible. Visit the animal shelter’s website here and learn about the animals up for adoption.  
Ever Upward, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo 
        
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WP Superintendent of Schools: Mix of In-person and Remote Instruction to Continue.

WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. December 2, 2020:

The White Plains City Schools will continue the combination of students attending class in their schools for part of the school week and learning remotely for another part of the week for the foreseeable future.

School unions and some parents last have asked the district to suspend in-school instruction for the 3-1/2 weeks of school in the month of December to learning remotely only (in homes) to control the spread of Covid infections during the holidays coming up.

The request is not being granted at this time.

Superintendent of Schools Joseph Ricca in a live address on the School District Facebook page , addressed the issue saying the present mix of “hybrid learning” would continue. He issued this statement to WPCNR:

The Board of Education and I remain grateful for the tremendous effort and dedication shown by all members of the WPCSD community throughout the pandemic. We are especially appreciative of the district’s Reopening Committee for the critical planning, preparation and guidance provided as we implemented our safe, smart and supported facility reopening in the fall of 2020.

We know that many in our community are understandably concerned with the recent increase of COVID-19 cases in our state and region. As a district, we remain committed to the health and safety protocols that have allowed our professionals to serve our students, in person, while addressing identified positive cases of COVID-19 and mitigating additional community spread.

We remain committed to protecting our community members and serving our children within our facilities for as long as we are able.

Should an adjustment to our in-person schedule become necessary, due to challenges associated with community spread, we are ready to act and pivot to remote learning as necessary. Still, we know that serving our students safely in our classrooms remains our daily goal.

Asked to comment on the New York State analysis of the school district rate of infections since the start of the school year in late September shown below, Dr. Ricca stated in an email to WPCNR today:

“I think that we are fortunate that we have been able to avoid pervasive spread of COVID-19 within the school facilities. We believe that this positive outcome is the direct result of the hard work of our educational community members to follow best practices throughout our school community.

We recognize that the virus is still very much a presence and we know that we will need to contend with it in the near-term.

However, we also know that adhering to best practices for health and safety goes a long way to reducing the potential spread of COVID-19 in our schools.

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