Sep 8, 2020
As schools begin to reopen and some return to in-person learning, I understand parents and teachers are anxious. To help manage the stress of uncertainty regarding COVID, we want to clearly provide New Yorkers with the facts and data needed so parents, teachers and students are informed. Therefore, we are launching a new online dashboard called the "COVID-19 Report Card." This dashboard will provide parents, teachers and students with comprehensive COVID data for every school that will be updated on a daily basis, including positive infections of students and staff, and percentage of on-site students and staff who test positive. The dashboard is available here.
Here's what else you need to know tonight:
1. Four states have been added to the State's travel advisory. Visitors traveling from Delaware, Maryland, Ohio and West Virginia must quarantine upon arriving from NY. Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have been removed from the list. Learn more about NY's travel advisory.
2. The total number of hospitalizations continues to remains low. Yesterday, there were 445 total hospitalizations. Of the 57,826 tests reported yesterday, 557, or 0.96 percent, were positive. Sadly, we lost 5 New Yorkers to the virus.
3. New York State launched a COVID tracker to monitor cases at SUNY colleges and universities. The Department of Health will be issuing regulations to require colleges to notify the state when they have 100 COVID-19 cases and could have to transition to remote learning. To address, monitor and mitigate the spread of COVID across SUNY, New York also launched a case tracker database for SUNY's 64 colleges and universities. Updated daily, the dashboard will provide case counts for each individual campus, among other data. The dashboard is available here.
4. Reminder: New Yorkers can request an absentee ballot online now. This year, New Yorkers have several options to vote in this year's election: Early voting, absentee voting and in-person voting on Election Day. If you have concerns about COVID, you may request an online ballot now. Learn more.
Tonight's "Deep Breath Moment": Claudia and Richard Berroa started a business selling flan at notable New York grocery stores like Zabar's and Union Market. Eventually they decided to expand and open Claudy's Kitchen, a Peruvian restaurant. COVID-19 shutdowns impacted their opening plans, but in that delay the couple found a silver lining. Unhappy with the sign they had installed on their storefront, the restaurant owners acted on a whim and reached out to the late Milton Glaser, designer of the iconic "I Love NY" logo, for help. The legendary Bronx native obliged, and when they opened for takeout on June 12, his design was prominently displayed on the front of the restaurant. Glaser died on June 26, and this turned out to be one of his last projects.
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