This is our daily update on the latest news from COVID-19 on Sunday, January 31, 2021. Previous daily updates can be found here, and updated statistics are here.
New York is in Reopening phase 4 now, which includes zoos, botanical gardens, museums, and gyms. Citing rising hospitalization rates, Governor Andrew Cuomo suspended indoor dining in NYC from December 14th, but is scheduled to return with limited capacity on Valentine’s Day. After being turn off for several weeks, public schools in NYC partially reopened on December 7 for students in grades 3 to 5, with students with special needs returning on December 10th. Certain parts of Staten Island remain under a zoned shutdown.
Get answers to your questions can have with our series “Ask an epidemiologist”, or learn more about NYC COVID-19 test options with our explainer. Here are some local and state hotlines for more information: NYC: 311; NY State Hotline: 888-364-3065; NJ State Hotline: 800-222-1222.
Here are the latest:
4:41 pm: A case of South Africa’s COVID-19 variant has been found in the Baltimore area of Maryland – another sign that different strains of the virus are spreading across the United States while the country is simultaneously trying to contain the pandemic with vaccines.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan said on Saturday that a Maryland resident fell ill with the new variant, probably from “community transmission”. The man had not traveled outside the USA
“State health officials are closely monitoring SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.351 in the state,” said Hogan in a statement released on Saturday. “We encourage sailors to exercise extra caution to limit the additional risk of transmission associated with this variant.”
Maryland’s case is the third in the country, with two others screened in South Carolina. Maryland also tracked seven cases of the United Kingdom variant, known as B.1.1.7.
The state of New York has become a hotspot for the UK variant, with 44 cases reported in the state, but no variant from Brazil and South Africa has been found. Genome sequencing to track variants is well below the total number of COVID-19 cases confirmed in New York each week. The Wall Street Journal reports that the City’s Pandemic Response Laboratory will begin sequencing 2,000 coronavirus samples a week in mid-February.
New York health commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said the state is sequencing about 700 samples a week. About 3,000 specimens have been tested since December 23.
“I don’t want to be Governor Downer, but I don’t want to be anything but frank and sincere with the people of the state,” Cuomo said during a press conference on Sunday. “Today’s news is very good, but keep an eye out for these UK variants and the other variants – and they all suggest more diligence.”
A vaccination site in Brooklyn was almost deserted on Saturday
9:53: A COVID-19 vaccine site at a Coney Island high school was severely underutilized on Saturday, according to a video shared by counselor Mark Treyger.
The video shows Lincoln High School with employees waiting to register people and administer the vaccine, with only one person being seen receiving an injection.
“This is crazy,” said the person who shot the video.
Lincoln HS at Coney Island this morning. Mainly employees and hardly anyone being vaccinated. Irony is that the city’s website says there are no nominations available for my voters today, but no one is there and they are waiting for vaccines to be provided. This is unacceptable @nycHealthy ! pic.twitter.com/6jXOnyndSs
– Mark Treyger (@ MarkTreyger718) January 30, 2021
Treyger wrote, “This is unacceptable.”
“Clearly, we have logistical problems locally that have not yet been resolved,” East Village counselor Carlina Rivera added.
Department of Health spokesman Patrick Gallahue said in a tweet stating that the city’s DOH hubs were open for rescheduled appointments that had to be postponed after thousands were canceled due to a lack of supplies.
“Supply remains limited and we will use it until the last dose in Lincoln over the weekend,” wrote Gallahue. When asked for more information, he reiterated that “until the last dose” will be used this weekend.
There were doses available in addition to scheduled appointments alone, according to the NY Post. After Treyger tweeted the video, older New Yorkers lined up on Saturday afternoon to see if they could be vaccinated without an appointment, eventually being vaccinated after a worker confirmed there were large doses, the Post reports.
Gallahue said a waiting list is only used if doses or schedules are available. The team can quickly reach New Yorkers qualified to use the doses, he said.
The nearly empty website was a visual reminder of the messy distribution of the vaccine so far, about seven weeks after its launch. Vaccine candidates face a patchwork of online systems to get an appointment, sometimes having to go through the process a second time to secure their second chance. Several ad-hoc efforts emerged seeking to help eligible New Yorkers find vaccination schedules when official systems are not working.
Inconsistent week-to-week supplies make planning difficult. On a particularly chaotic night, a swarm of people arrived at the Brooklyn Army Terminal earlier this month, after news of leftover doses spread quickly on social media. Subsequently, the site had to be closed because it ran out of doses.
About 53,000 first doses remain available in New York, with another 313,000 reserved for people’s second dose, starting Sunday morning, according to the city’s vaccine tracker. NYC has administered 800,508 doses in total since December 14, about 200,000 below Mayor Bill de Blasio’s 1 million dose target.