Governor Hochul Updates New Yorkers on State's Progress Combating COVID-19 - FEBRUARY 6, 2023

 

Governor Encourages New Yorkers to Keep Using the Tools to Protect Against and Treat COVID-19: Vaccines, Boosters, Testing and Treatment

25 Statewide Deaths Reported on February 3

 Governor Kathy Hochul today updated New Yorkers on the state's progress combatting COVID-19 and outlined basic steps they can take to protect against the spread of viral respiratory infections that become more common in the winter season.

"I urge all New Yorkers to remain vigilant and continue to use all available tools to keep themselves, their loved ones and their communities safe and healthy," Governor Hochul said. "Be sure to stay up to date on vaccine doses, and test before gatherings or travel. If you test positive, talk to your doctor about potential treatment options."

Governor Hochul is urging New Yorkers to take common prevention measures — like staying up to date on vaccines and practicing proper hygiene — to protect from the flu and COVID-19 and reduce the patient burden on local hospitals. The Governor reiterated these basic steps when she updated New Yorkers on the state's winter health preparedness efforts last month.

The New York State Department of Health's weekly flu surveillance report for the week ending January 28, shows influenza remaining widespread throughout the state for a seventeenth consecutive week, with a total of 308,279 positive cases across 57 counties reported to date. The report found that confirmed cases statewide dropped 34 percent to 2,937 for the week, while overall hospitalizations were down 35 percent from the previous week, at 304 hospitalizations across the state.

Additionally, there were 6 outbreaks in acute care and long-term care facilities, the report determined. There was one influenza-associated pediatric death reported bringing the total to nine statewide.

With flu season continuing and infections remaining widespread, Governor Hochul encourages all New Yorkers to get their annual flu vaccine. The flu virus and the virus that causes COVID-19 are both circulating, so getting vaccinated against both is the best way to stay healthy and to avoid added stress to the health care system.

The Health Department is continuing its annual public education campaign, reminding adults and parents to get both flu and COVID-19 shots for themselves and children 6 months and older. For information about flu vaccine clinics, contact the local health department or visit vaccines.gov/find-vaccines/.

Governor Hochul also continues to urge New Yorkers to get their bivalent COVID-19 vaccine boosters. In December, the New York State Department of Health announced new guidance for bivalent COVID-19 booster doses, which are now available for eligible children down to 6 months of age.

The updated boosters are the first to be targeted to the original virus strain and recently circulating variants and are recommended for young New Yorkers and all those eligible. To schedule an appointment for a booster, New Yorkers should contact their local pharmacy, county health department, or healthcare provider; visit vaccines.gov; text their ZIP code to 438829, or call 1-800-232-0233 to find nearby locations.

Today's data is summarized briefly below:

• Cases Per 100k - 7.43
• 7-Day Average Cases Per 100k - 13.40
• Test Results Reported - 25,835
• Total Positive - 1,452
• Percent Positive - 5.18%**
• 7-Day Average Percent Positive - 5.63%**
• Patient Hospitalization - 2,391 (-79)*
• Patients Newly Admitted - 371*
• Patients in ICU - 264 (+10)*
• Patients in ICU with Intubation - 94 (-5)*
• Total Discharges - 397,204 (+392)*
• New deaths reported by healthcare facilities through HERDS - 25*
• Total deaths reported by healthcare facilities through HERDS - 61,431*

** Due to the test reporting policy change by the federal Department of Health and Human Services and several other factors, the most reliable metric to measure virus impact on a community is the case per 100,000 data -- not percent positivity.

The Health Electronic Response Data System is a NYS DOH data source that collects confirmed daily death data as reported by hospitals, nursing homes and adult care facilities only.

Important Note: Effective Monday, April 4, the federal Department of Health and Human Services is no longer requiring testing facilities that use COVID-19 rapid antigen tests to report negative results. As a result, New York State's percent positive metric will be computed using only lab-reported PCR results. Positive antigen tests will still be reported to New York State and reporting of new daily cases and cases per 100k will continue to include both PCR and antigen tests. Due to this change and other factors, including changes in testing practices, the most reliable metric to measure virus impact on a community is the case per 100,000 data -- not percent positivity.

• Total deaths reported to and compiled by the CDC - 78,119

This daily COVID-19 provisional death certificate data reported by NYS DOH and NYC to the CDC includes those who died in any location, including hospitals, nursing homes, adult care facilities, at home, in hospice and other settings.

Each New York City borough's 7-day average percentage of positive test results reported over the last three days is as follows **:

Borough	Friday,   February  3, 2023	Saturday,   February   4, 2023	Sunday,   February   5, 2023
Bronx	5.26%	5.24%	5.09%
Kings	4.29%	4.07%	4.06%
New York	4.37%	4.20%	4.26%
Queens	5.00%	4.94%	4.83%
Richmond	5.19%	5.13%	4.85%

PUBLIC ADVOCATE PUSHES FOR CLARITY, COMPASSION IN CITY'S MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS RESPONSE STRATEGIES

 

In a City Council oversight hearing today, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams pushed for clarity on the administration's mental health strategy and raised several questions about the city's plan for involuntary hospitalization of New Yorkers perceived as being unable to take care of themselves. The tactic has been controversial, and the Public Advocate sought specifics to answer the concerns of many New Yorkers about its intention and implementation.

"Mayor Adams says that the city has a 'moral obligation' to help those who have acute psychiatric disabilities, and I agree," said Public Advocate Williams. "However, merely holding a person in a hospital before releasing them into the same environment does not help anybody and in fact may make people distrustful of and less likely to seek behavioral health services...If the city truly wants to fulfill its moral obligation to New Yorkers with psychiatric disabilities, it must invest in a continuum of care that everyone needs... Any continuum of care has to include affordable and supportive housing; affordable, community-based health services; accessible education; non-police responses to mental health crises; and employment. It should fund mental health support and services, not weaponize it."

Mental health has been a key focus of the Public Advocate, who released an assessment of the city's mental health crisis response strategies in 2019 and an updated review in November of 2022. He presented many questions and requests for clarification about the administration's latest plan in a letter shortly after its announcement, and as he noted in the hearing, many of these questions have not been addressed.

He expressed great concern about the level of law enforcement involvement in the city's mental health crisis response, saying that, "Involving the police as the primary people to respond, or having them be present without being called, when responding to a person in mental health crisis is extremely dangerous and has had historically deadly results. The number of NYPD officers who have received crisis intervention training has dropped over the last two years, to the point where two-thirds of active-duty officers remain untrained, and the NYPD has no way to ensure that those officers who have been trained are the ones responding to 911 calls reporting mental health crises."

The Public Advocate's full statement as delivered is available below. His previous, unanswered questions to the administration on the plan can be downloaded here, and the office's mental health report is here.

STATEMENT OF PUBLIC ADVOCATE JUMAANE D. WILLIAMS

TO THE NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEES ON PUBLIC SAFETY; MENTAL HEALTH, DISABILITIES, AND ADDICTION; HOSPITALS, AND FIRE AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

FEBRUARY 6, 2023

Good morning,

My name is Jumaane D. Williams, and I am the Public Advocate for the City of New York. I would like to thank the Chairs and the members of the Committees for holding this important hearing.

In a given year, one in five New Yorkers experiences psychiatric illness, and hundreds of thousands of those are not connected to care or support. Those who are not receiving treatment or services for their psychiatric disabilities are more likely to be low-income people of more color. In addition to a shortage of inpatient psychiatric beds, our city is also experiencing an affordable housing crisis, forcing more and more people into the shelter system and the streets, making people experiencing homelessness and/or symptoms of psychiatric disabilities even more visible. 

In response to a rise in crime rates in the subway, including two tragic and high-profile incidents where people experiencing symptoms of psychiatric disabilities pushed commuters in front of trains, Mayor Adams announced in November of last year that NYPD and FDNY would be allowed to involuntarily take people perceived as being unable to take care of themselves to hospitals. Many received this to mean they would be removed regardless of whether they pose any threat of harm to themselves or others. It also seemed that this was simply the announcement of a tactic, much less an entire plan. First, we have to make sure we are clear that mental health is not a crime, and that most people who are experiencing mental illness will not commit crimes.   

Until that announcement, people experiencing mental health crises could be involuntarily detained only if they were deemed to be an immediate risk to themselves or others. Now, it was assumed based on the announcement that those perceived to be “mentally ill” and unable to care for their basic needs can be detained and forced into a hospital, even if they pose no risk of harm to themselves or others. If this is the case, it could not only be dangerous but also a waste of resources.  

It is important to point out there is no evidence that court-ordered involuntary treatment in hospitals is more effective than community-based treatment. In fact, Martial Simon, the man who fatally pushed Michelle Alyssa Go in front of a train while experiencing symptoms of schizophrenia, had been hospitalized at least 20 times and reportedly was upset that hospitals were discharging him before he believed he was well enough to live on his own. Involuntary hospitalization also has a broad negative impact on many areas of a person’s life, often leading to the loss of access to basic rights and services, including employment, parenting, education, housing, professional licenses, or even potentially the right to drive.

Involving the police as the primary people to respond, or having them be present without being called, when responding to a person in mental health crisis is extremely dangerous and has had historically deadly results. The number of NYPD officers who have received crisis intervention training has dropped over the last two years, to the point where two-thirds of active-duty officers remain untrained, and the NYPD has no way to ensure that those officers who have been trained are the ones responding to 911 calls reporting mental health crises. To name only one tragic story: In 2019, two police officers were dispatched to the home of Kawaski Trawick, a 32-year-old Black man experiencing a mental health crisis. Within two minutes, the officers escalated the encounter to the point that one of the officers fired four shots, killing Mr. Trawick, who did not have a gun. The officer who fired the shots had attended crisis intervention training just days prior.

Mayor Adams says that the city has a “moral obligation” to help those who have acute psychiatric disabilities, and I agree. However, merely holding a person in a hospital before releasing them into the same environment does not help anybody and in fact may make people distrustful of, and less likely to seek, behavioral health services. Just before that announcement, my office released a report saying how we were doing on mental health, and what we could be doing better – I did not receive any response from the administration, and all of our reports do go to the administration.

If the city truly wants to fulfill its moral obligation to New Yorkers with psychiatric disabilities, it must invest in a continuum of care that everyone needs. I also want to mention that on December 1, my office sent a letter to the administration to get questions answered about many of the things that not only my office but many reporters and New Yorkers have asked, to try and see if we could flesh out if there was a fuller plan here. As of today, we have not received any response. Any continuum of care has to include affordable and supportive housing; affordable, community-based health services; accessible education; non-police responses to mental health crises; and employment. It should fund mental health support and services, not weaponize it.

I want to be clear that most communities that can access this continuum of care are generally white and wealthier. Most who cannot are generally poorer, Black and Brown, and unfortunately receive a response of police, forced hospitalizations, and arrest. So I always want to make sure that we can provide the continuum of care that’s actually needed, that may include hospitalizations, but it needs to be clear what that plan is, and my hope is that with this hearing today, perhaps we can get many of the questions answered that many of us have, including mine, and hopefully my letter can be responded to shortly.

Thank you.

NYS Office of the Comptroller DiNapoli: Local Sales Tax Collections Grew 12.7% to $22.1 Billion in 2022

 

Inflation and Growth in NYC Were Key Drivers for the Increase

Local government sales tax collections in New York state totaled $22.1 billion in calendar year 2022, up 12.7%, or $2.5 billion, from 2021 due to strong sales statewide, especially in New York City, according to a report released today by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

“The pandemic created significant sales tax volatility over the past few years, first with a major decline, then with a strong rebound,” DiNapoli said. “Sales tax growth has remained strong for a sustained stretch as consumers resumed spending relatively quickly after pandemic shutdowns ended. Additionally, the state implemented policies just prior to the pandemic that ensured more online sales were being fully taxed.”

Local sales tax growth in 2022’s fourth quarter (October to December) increased by 8.8% over the same quarter of 2021, which was similar to the year-over-year rates seen in the prior two quarters. This was after sales taxes in the first quarter grew by 21.1%, compared to fairly weak collections from the same quarter in 2021, when COVID infection rates were peaking, public vaccinations had not been fully rolled out and travel restrictions were still in place.

Inflation, even with the impact of the gas tax holiday, was one of the main drivers for sales tax growth in 2022, reaching a higher rate than in any recent year after a decade of lower-than-average inflation growth. Even as consumer demand for goods cooled somewhat during the year, the price of those goods continued to rise, sustaining high year-over-year growth in collections. As the pace of inflation moderated in the third quarter (July to September) and fourth quarter, however, so did collections growth.

New York City’s sales tax growth for 2022 was 20.6%, which exceeded that of the counties and cities throughout the rest of the state (6.5%), after lagging in 2021. The city’s collections have shown strong year-over-year growth after rebounding to pre-pandemic levels this past year. This growth has been boosted by increases in commuters returning to the office, and domestic and international tourism, which has helped strengthen service industry sectors, such as accommodation and food services, transportation, and arts, entertainment and recreation.

After strong quarterly year-over-year increases for most of 2021 and early 2022, sales tax growth outside of New York City slowed to 2.6% in the April to June period, well below the rate of inflation. While both third quarter (5.3%) and fourth quarter (4.5%) growth were a bit stronger, year-over-year collections may be returning to more typical pre-pandemic growth levels.

Every county saw some year-over-year growth in sales tax collections in 2022 with 41 out of 57 counties (72%) recording increases ranging from 4% to 10%. Yates County had the strongest growth at 21.1%, followed by the counties of Lewis (14.9%), Montgomery (12.4%) and Schoharie (11.8%). Dutchess County grew the least at 1.6%, followed by the counties of Jefferson, Chenango and Orleans, each at 2.4%.

The 18 cities outside of New York City that impose their own sales tax also experienced year-over-year growth in 2022. Saratoga Springs saw the strongest growth at 14.6%, followed by the cities of Johnstown (12.2%), Glens Falls (11%) and Ithaca (10.7%). Olean had the lowest growth at 0.5%.

Report

Local Sales Taxes for 2022