Study Suggests Mass Transit Is Not Where Viruses Tend To Spread

 

GOTHAMIST

BY STEPHEN NESSEN, WNYC

New Yorkers exit the subway in Kew Gardens in October. FRANK FRANKLIN II/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK

A new paper from researchers at New York University examined data from 121 cities across the country over a 10-year span, and found the number of people that died from influenza did not increase in cities with higher public transit ridership. The report’s authors suggest that public transit is not a significant vector for spreading viruses.

“We have found out that the use of mass transit is not a singularly important factor in the transmission of influenza,” Mitchell Moss, director of the NYU Rudin Center for Transportation, and one of the authors of the report, said.

Moss said with mask use high on the subway, at more than 90% compliance, according to the MTA, the culture of subway riders also helps prevent the spread on public transit.

“I’m much more concerned about crowding in elevators than I am in the subway where we know people are looking at their iPads, playing video games, and looking away from people,” he said.

This new study comes as ridership on New York’s subway remains, on average, about 70% below pre-pandemic levels, leaving the MTA with a crippling budget crisis due to lost ridership. The agency has been doing everything it can to assure riders it’s safe to ride the subway and the bus, as long as passengers wear masks.

The NYU report follows other recent academic studies of viruses and public transit, which find mass transit in crowded urban cities is not the way viruses are spread. The CDC’s latest guidance suggests the coronavirus is mainly spread by people who are in close contact with one another.

The study doesn’t conclude that people who ride public transit are at more or less at risk than people who don’t ride it.

“However, despite widespread concerns about the role of public transit in diffusing respiratory disease, our findings suggest that the rate of utilization is not a singularly important factor in the local prevalence of influenza,” the paper notes.

The MTA welcomed the findings of this report.

"This is the latest in a cascade of scientific reporting that shows transit is not a vector for the spread of respiratory diseases, and there has been no serious evidence worldwide connecting transit routes and spread of this virus,”MTA spokesperson Meredith Daniels wrote in a statement.

Despite espousing the wisdom of such scientific research and evidence, the MTA continues to shut the subway overnight between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. for costly deep cleaning. Experts say touching surfaces is not the main way the coronavirus is spread. The agency estimates it disinfects 5,000 subway cars a day, as well as stations, at a cost of $500,000 this year, and likely next year it will cost the same.

“The MTA continues to lead the way in its response to the pandemic -- from aggressive cleaning and disinfecting to mandating masks for all customers and employees and deploying innovative air filtration technology across our system," Daniels wrote in response to a question about the ongoing cleaning efforts.

Despite riders not being likely to catch the virus on their commute, MTA workers are still concerned about the second wave, after losing 128 people to the virus this year. Workers have ongoing concerns about a lack of mask compliance from their colleagues, and worry that small, crowded breakrooms could be places where the virus is spread.

The MTA’s workforce was the city’s hardest hit compared to other city workers, like the NYPD, FDNY and DSNY, with 128 workers dying from the virus and thousands sickened. A recent preliminary study found as many as a quarter of the workforce may have caught the virus since March.

“It’s a little scary going to work. It’s better than it was in March. But a lot of people still aren’t wearing masks,” David Noven, 52, a supervisor at a train maintenance shop in Inwood told Gothamist/WNYC.

Noven said the so-called temperature brigades don’t work, because the thermometers are unreliable, and even when they do show a high temperature, he’s seen people go to work anyway. He says workers at his shop also aren’t utilizing the free coronavirus testing at the work site. And he says the MTA needs to do more to ensure workers are complying with mask regulations.

“They should really make efforts to separate workers,” he said. “And they should give us some system to enforce a mask rule. Some people wear masks, some people don’t. People have to work very closely with each other.”

Train operator LaCheryl Kenner-Edwards, 60, has been at the MTA for 38 years. An asthma sufferer, she took leave on March 31st over fears of catching the coronavirus. When she returned to work at the beginning of October, she was shocked to find the lack of mask compliance among other MTA workers.

“People in the breakroom, they get very lax,” Kenner-Edwards told Gothamist. She said she wears three masks and a face shield at work, and doesn’t care that her co-workers refer to her as “Darth Vader.” 

the President of the Transport Workers Union Local 100 Tony Utano said the union is still “focused” on increasing social distancing and reducing the number of people in crew and break rooms, as well as getting more trailers and empty buses for workers to use for breaks.

Chief Safety Officer Warren said it’s up to managers and supervisors to monitor break rooms for overcrowding and compliance.

To address these concerns, the agency has set up rapid testing at some work sites for employees, and is offering free tests at other clinics. The positivity rate for MTA workers remains far lower than the city average at less than 1%. There’s also trailers at some terminals for workers to take breaks in.

As for riders, the MTA said air circulation on the subways is comparable to health care facilities, with the rate of fresh exchanged 9 and 18 times per hour, “which exceeds the minimum rates of air exchanges per hour cited by the CDC for certain for certain health care facilities,” a spokesperson for the MTA wrote. Metro-North is undergoing a pilot with new virus killing filters that bring in fresh air 30 times an hour.

NYC Public Schools Are Reopening Again. What’s Different This Time Around?

 

GOTHAMIST

BY DAVID CRUZ

P.S. 34 in Greenpoint. ERIK PENDZICH/SHUTTERSTOCK

Next week, nearly 190,000 students will grab their backpacks once again and head back to public schools for round two of reopening. Mayor Bill de Blasio chose to shutter all 1,600 public school buildings the moment the city’s seven-day rolling positivity testing average rate hit 3% on November 16th, sending children into 100% remote learning and thousands of weary parents into a tailspin as they rearranged their schedules.

Now, de Blasio has announced that once schools reopen on December 7th, a full system-wide shutdown will not happen again (with some caveats). Below, we break down just what lies ahead for the young students getting facetime with their peers and teachers once again.

So schools are really reopening on December 7th?

Yes, public school buildings in New York City are reopening on December 7th, two and a half weeks after the NYC average seven-day positivity rate for COVID-19 hit exactly 3%, the city’s trigger for an in-person learning shutdown and a complete shift to remote learning.

The 3% threshold was agreed upon by de Blasio and school labor unions, including the powerful United Federation of Teachers, in addition to other measures like randomized testing of 10-20% of school populations.

Who is expected to show up in person to school on December 7th?

De Blasio is allowing 3K, pre-K, and K to 5th grade students to return to the classroom on December 7th, in keeping with his policy of prioritizing school reopening to younger children as they require more social and emotional learning than middle and high school students. Studies also show that younger students are less likely to transmit COVID-19.

When will the older students return?

There is no firm date on when students will be returning, though de Blasio has hinted that it may not happen until January, once the holiday break concludes.

How many students will be attending schools in person?

By early 2021, there will be an estimated 315,000 students—from 3K through high school— attending classes in person. This breaks down to 190,000 younger and District 75 students slated to return the week of December 7th, and another 125,000 middle and high school students expected to come back as soon as January.

The number of students remains murky since de Blasio revealed in November that 280,000 students have attended school in person “at least once,” meaning that some of those students may have completely switched back to remote learning. The other 35,000 students are those who signed up for in-person following a one-time opt-in period for the school year.

There were 1 million students attending the NYC public school system in the 2019-2020 school year; the city Department of Education has not disclosed total 2020-2021 enrollment numbers.

When will District 75 special education students return?

All District 75 students, regardless of age, will be returning to the classroom on December 10th. Unlike public schools, D75 schools, which serve students with special needs, have had the opportunity to go five days a week given the limitations imposed by remote learning.

Can students in full remote learning eventually return to the classroom this year?

No. The one-time opt-in period ended on November 15th, though Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza has suggested he could reconsider. Initially, Carranza had instituted a quarterly opt-in period, but backtracked after principals complained that reconfiguring classes on a quarterly basis posed major challenges.

What’s different about schools reopening this time around?

The city Department of Education will maintain the same social distancing standards it had implemented when schools reopened in September. This will include temperature checks, mask wearing, and desks that are at least six feet apart.

The main difference is testing—and a greater push for students and their families to comply with testing policy. De Blasio has beefed up the city’s testing protocols at public schools. Before schools closed, while students and teachers at each school had to take part in a randomized testing program with 10-20% of a school’s population once a month, not all students brought in consent forms and schools never enforced any consequences for not participating.

Now, all students returning to in-person learning must consent to testing, because the state requires that 20% of each school community be tested once a week to get a clearer sense of COVID-19 rates in schools. Consent forms must be signed and on file upon returning. To sign up online, go to mystudent.nyc.

The only students who are not required to be tested are 3-K, pre-K, and Kindergarten; NYC Health Department commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi says that’s because they transmit the virus the least. Students who have a medical condition will also be exempt.

How are they expected to get cooperation from students on consent forms?

De Blasio and Carranza hope that the ability to attend school in-person just a few days a week will be enticing enough for families to provide student consent forms.

If any students do not have the permission slip signed by a parent or guardian by the time they begin school, then they will only learn remotely.

How long will in-person students be given to show up for school until they return?

De Blasio announced on Wednesday that in-person students will be given one week to show up to school before school administrators alert them that they’ll be strictly learning remotely.

"If, in the course of the week, your child doesn't show up [...], the school is going to say to you is, 'this is your last chance,'" de Blasio said. "You have to show up during this week or have a legitimate excuse or communicate with the school what's going on. If you don't, the school is going to let you know that your child will be moved to all remote."

A school in Red Hook SAI MOKHTARI / GOTHAMIST

Is it true that in-person learning can expand beyond the maximum three days?

Yes. De Blasio has stressed that schools can go five days a week, though it’s contingent on staffing. Since the school year’s sole opt-in period concluded, principals now have a firm idea of whether they have sufficient in-person educators to safely expand the number of in-person days for students. Principals are now assessing whether such a move is feasible in their school.

But de Blasio has still not revealed an updated tally of teachers hired for the last two months, leaving an opaque picture on the number of schools capable of shifting to all in-person learning.

How many schools will go five days a week?

De Blasio hasn’t revealed that number yet. On Wednesday, he did mention that some schools can go to five days a week the moment they begin next week.

For the other 700,000+ students, how much has remote learning improved?

While the city contends that remote learning has made strides since March, when the school system shifted completely to remote learning at the onset of the pandemic, most parents have stressed that remote learning needs significant improvement.

Issues relating to poor audio quality, slow broadband, and the inability to properly socialize remain obstacles for remote learners uncomfortable in returning to in-person learning this year.

What happens if there’s a COVID-19 case at school?

The same rules apply from before: If a school has a COVID-19 case in one classroom, the city’s so-called situation room investigates. Typically, students and staffers that came into contact will have to quarantine and meet remotely for 14 days if they come into contact with someone infected with COVID-19.

If two unlinked cases are discovered at a school in two separate classrooms, then the school shuts down for 24 hours, and reopens with students and staffers who came into contact with the COVID-19 cases in quarantine.

Doesn’t the state have a similar plan in place for school closures?

Sort of. This is where it gets confusing.

Since October, the state has instituted a tri-colored hot zone strategy consisting of yellow, orange, and red zones. When parts of Brooklyn and Queens were put into these zones in October, schools in orange and red zones were ordered to be closed since the state’s seven-day infection rate average in those neighborhoods stood above 3%. Schools in yellow zones — which were a buffer around the orange zone (which surrounded the red zone) — were allowed to remain open as long as 20% of a school community was tested weekly. This “testing out to keep schools open” approach was backed by state law, superseding anything New York City instituted.

Have restrictions at zones changed?

Yes. Eventually, Cuomo loosened the rules on school closures, at least for orange zones, saying that they can reopen four days after they first close, but they must still “test out.” Red zones had to stay closed. But on Monday, November 30th, Cuomo updated his policy saying schools in orange and red zones don’t have to close for four days if a testing program is already in place.

Schools that stay open in orange zones will now be required to test 20% of in-person students and staffers (a month ago that number was 25%). In red zones, the testing rate is now 30%. Given de Blasio’s promise that testing at public schools will be implemented across the system, with returning students required to consent to testing, it’s unlikely schools will close for four days.

This helps reconcile the confusion caused by Cuomo and de Blasio’s misaligned COVID-19 positivity rate thresholds.

Will the entire public school system have to close again after this?

On Monday, de Blasio said that the decision to close the entire school system won’t happen again, provided that the seven-day rolling positivity testing average rate for COVID-19 — as tracked by the state — does not hit 9%. That’s the trigger, set in July by Cuomo, to close all schools in a region down.

“This approach, now with more testing, with mandatory consent forms, we believe we can sustain and take it through to the point when we have a vaccine,” the mayor said.

Is Virus Death Rate in U.S. on a Slow Descent? Virus Rages at City Jails, Leaving 1,259 Guards Infected and 6 Dead. UPDATES

U.S. deaths reported per day

The novel coronavirus has taken a heartbreaking health and 

economic toll in America. But the course of the pandemic isn’t 

the same as it was a few months ago.  There are encouraging signs

all over the country — but no early indications of an overall

reopening. Nate Silver pointed out that the seven-day rolling 

average for deaths is 1,362, down from 1,761 the week prior and a

 peak of 2,070 on April 21. That’s still too much too high, but 

the trend is favorable.

Correction officers in New York City live in fear of bringing the virus home to families. They say the city has not protected them.

NY TIMES

For one Rikers Island correction officer, the low point came when he and his wife were both extremely sick with the coronavirus. She could hardly breathe and begged him to make sure she was not buried in a mass grave, he recalled. He was sure he had contracted the disease working in the jailhouse, where supervisors had discouraged him from wearing a mask.

“I’m looking at the person I care most about possibly dying from this thing I brought home,” he said, choking back tears. “That to me is the scariest thing I ever faced.”

Another officer at the Rikers jail said he worked for nearly two weeks while feeling ill but received no help from the jail’s administrators in getting a test. A third, who delivered mail to people in custody, some of them sick, was told he could not use a mask that he had at home but had to wait for a city-issued one. He, too, became infected.

The coronavirus has wreaked havoc on New York City’s 9,680 correction officers and their supervisors, who, like the police and firefighters, are considered essential workers. So far, 1,259 have caught the virus and six have died, along with five other jail employees and two correctional health workers. The officers’ union contends that the death of one other guard is also the result of Covid-19.

The virus has sickened more correction officers in New York, the center of the pandemic in the United States, than in most other large American cities, including Chicago, Houston, Miami and Los Angeles combined, according to data collected by The New York Times.

A majority of the officers in New York City are black and Hispanic and come from neighborhoods with high rates of Covid-19. Inmates also have also been hit hard: 545 have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic started, officials said. Three have died in custody, and two succumbed within hours of being released.

Correction officers and union officials have blamed the jail system’s management for the high number of infections. The union points to the department’s practice of asking officers to return to work after they recovered from the illness even if they had not yet tested negative for the virus. And they cited delays in providing many officers with protective gear during the critical month of March and failures to notify guards about colleagues who tested positive for Covid-19.

More than 160 inmates and 130 staff members at the Rikers Island jail complex have been infected with the virus.Credit...Todd Heisler/The New York TimesThey also have said that extra-long work shifts — sometimes 24 hours at a stretch — contributed to the epidemic among officers. At the peak of the epidemic, 36 percent of the uniformed jail staff called in sick, leading to long shifts for those still on the job.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_Si7AzhExB

Coronavirus ‘does not spread easily’ on contaminated surfaces: CDC

DAILY NEWS

The uncertainty surrounding coronavirus has been a huge source of anxiety throughout this pandemic, as scientists have struggled to uncover not just a treatment for the disease, but also basic facts about its existence.

Though many have been concerned about infection through items like groceries or mail deliveries, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recently issued updated guidance saying that coronavirus “does not spread easily” from touching surfaces or objects.

“It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes,” the CDC says. “This is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads, but we are still learning more about this virus.”

The Striking Racial Divide in How Covid-19 Has Hit Nursing Homes

Homes with a significant number of black and Latino residents have been twice as likely to be hit by the coronavirus as those where the population is overwhelmingly white.

The coronavirus pandemic has devastated the nation’s nursing homes, sickening staff members, ravaging residents and contributing to at least 20 percent of the nation’s Covid-19 death toll. The impact has been felt in cities and suburbs, in large facilities and small, in poorly rated homes and in those with stellar marks.

But Covid-19 has been particularly virulent toward African-Americans and Latinos: Nursing homes where those groups make up a significant portion of the residents — no matter their location, no matter their size, no matter their government rating — have been twice as likely to get hit by the coronavirus as those where the population is overwhelmingly white.

More than 60 percent of nursing homes where at least a quarter of the residents are black or Latino have reported at least one coronavirus case, a New York Times analysis shows. That is double the rate of homes where black and Latino people make up less than 5 percent of the population. And in nursing homes, a single case often leads to a handful of cases, and then a full-fledged outbreak.

Disparity in the share of nursing homes hit

In many states, facilities with a population of at least a quarter black and Latino residents were more likely to have at least one coronavirus case.

The nation’s nursing homes, like many of its schools, churches and neighborhoods, are largely segregated. And those that serve predominantly black and Latino residents tend to receive fewer stars on government ratings. Those facilities also tend to house more residents and to be located in urban areas, which are risk factors in the pandemic.

Yet the disparities in outbreaks among homes with more Latino and black residents have also unfolded in confusing ways that experts say are difficult to explain.

The race and ethnicity of the people living in a nursing home was a predictor of whether it was hit with Covid-19. But the Times analysis found that the federal government’s five-star rating system, often used to judge the quality of a nursing home, was not a predictor. Even predominantly black and Latino nursing homes with high ratings were more likely to be affected by the coronavirus than were predominantly white nursing homes with low ratings, the data showed.

Cuomo: Westchester to reopen Tuesday as COVID-19 deaths drop below 100 for first time since March

The death toll dropped to 84 people Friday, the first time it’s dipped below 100 since the pandemic slammed the city and surrounding suburbs more than two months ago.

Cuomo called it a bittersweet benchmark that shows how far New Yorkers have come.

“It doesn’t do any good for those 84 families that are feeling the pain,” Cuomo said. 'But we are making progress and that feels good."

In the city, 52 people died of coronavirus in the 24 hours ending Friday evening. The total death toll rose to 21,138. There have been nearly 195,000 COVID-19 cases in the five boroughs.

Gov. Cuomo gave Westchester and the Hudson Valley the green light to reopen starting Tuesday as the coronavirus death toll dipped below 100 for the first time since the crisis erupted in March.

The governor also suggested hard-hit Long Island could start the reopening process on Wednesday if the death toll and case numbers keep dropping in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

U.S. government scientists finally publish remdesivir data.

Nearly a month after U.S. government scientists claimed that an experimental drug had helped patients severely ill with the coronavirus, the research has been published.

The drug, remdesivir, was quickly authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment of coronavirus patients, and hospitals rushed to obtain supplies.

But until now, researchers and physicians had not seen the actual data.

The long-awaited study, sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, appeared on The New England Journal of Medicine’s website on Friday evening. It confirmed the essence of the government’s assertions: Remdesivir shortened recovery time from 15 days to 11 days in hospitalized patients. The study defined recovery as “either discharge from the hospital or hospitalization.”

The trial was rigorous, randomly assigning 1,063 seriously ill patients to receive either remdesivir or a placebo. Those who received the drug not only recovered faster but also did not have serious adverse events more often than those who were given the placebo.