Mayor Bill de Blasio: Good morning, everybody. This has been, to say the least, an extraordinary year, an extraordinarily difficult year and painful year on so many levels, but also a year where New Yorkers have done amazing things to support each other and protect each other. And New Yorkers have been so vibrantly thinking about the kind of city that we need to be, going forward. People have really gotten involved and talking about how we have to address the disparities and the challenges, the unfairness that's still too much of life in this city that has to be overcome. And this is something that people are feeling, obviously, all over the country. And now, after months and months and months of all the frustrations, all the questions, all the challenges, two weeks from now people get an opportunity to decide the future direction of this country and to express everything we feel and use our democratic process to determine our course forward.
So, we're now in the final days before the most important election of our lifetime. We're going to talk today about some of the things that are so important to get people ready to fully participate. And particularly the fact that early voting starts this Saturday. So, it's really happening now and want everyone to know all the details, how to engage and get questions answered, make sure that everyone knows how to participate fully. But before that, let me give us all an update on what's been happening in our efforts to fight back the virus. And we're going through some challenges, but we're also seeing some really, really positive developments. And I want to talk about the importance of testing. Look, we've said it from the beginning, it just proves more and more true all the time – the more people get tested, the better we know what's going on and the better we can act. And from the beginning, we've said to people how important it is to just not doubt or question the testing process, but go out there and participate. It's very fair for New Yorkers, New Yorkers always asked tough questions, but really a lot of people talk themselves out of getting tested when it would be better for themselves and all of us for people to just go and experience it and participate and help us get the truer look on what's happening at this – over this whole city. So, that's why we have Get Tested Tuesday as a reminder to folks to folks who have never been tested – and there's still a lot of folks who've never been tested – or folks who haven't been tested in a long time, how important it is just to get out there and be a part of this. And it will actually give us the information we need to move this city forward.
And we're in the middle of a set of challenges, but they're challenges we can overcome. I've talked very openly about the fact there is a threat of a second wave, but we can stop that second wave. Absolutely requires people to participate and one of the best ways to participate is by getting tested. Now, in our school system, our public schools, we, from the beginning, determined that we would have a regular dealer testing program, a mandatory testing program every month, every school. And as we have started that testing program, we've just seen remarkable results. And this is a testament to everyone in our school system, the extraordinary work – our staff, our educators, parents, kids – everyone has done to make sure our schools are safe. So, now, after we've had testing in hundreds of schools, 16,000-plus test results have come back, only 28 students and staff have tested positive in our entire school system after more than 16,000 test results have come back. That is a positivity rate of 0.17 percent. This is really extraordinary. I want to emphasize, we all focus on our challenges and our difficulties, but let's take a moment to celebrate what the people of New York City have achieved – a 0.17 percent positivity rate – that's unbelievably good. And that means that all of those precautions that have been taken in our schools are working. When we said we were taking a global gold standard approach to our schools, that's exactly what's happened. You go into a school building, you see so many health and safety measures layered one on top of another, but the proof is in the results. And these are amazing results. And this really bodes well for the future of our schools and our ability to fight and overcome this disease.
Now. I want to remind all parents, all staff, the entire school community, we really want everyone to get involved in testing. And to do that, we need people to fill out those consent forms. So, again, a reminder to everyone, particularly parents, go online, fill out that consent form. Go to your account with the school system and do it that way or you can fill out a paper form and send it back into school. But this testing is working and it’s helping us keep our schools safe and is helping our city move forward.
Now, back to this historic moment – 14 days, two weeks to go. And, in fact, if you are really itching to vote, you can vote starting as early as this Saturday, October 24th. And early voting will continue from this Saturday, all the way to November 1st. Remember, voting is considered an essential service, just like the essential businesses that stay open. Voting sites will stay open throughout the city. All early voting and Election Day sites will be opened as planned, every borough, every neighborhood. And, of course, if you prefer not to vote on election day or not even to early vote, you can still vote by absentee ballot. That deadline is coming up soon. So, we are really pushing the Board of Elections to get clear information out, to not make some of the mistakes they've made previously and make this an easy, positive experience. But we're not just pushing them, we're doing our own work here at City Hall to get the word out, to encourage people, to give people answers, to make sure folks know that voting can be easy and safe. And our whole DemocracyNYC team has been deeply involved in getting people engaged more than ever before and showing people that everyone needs to participate. So, here to talk about this effort, my Senior Advisor and General Counsel to DemocracyNYC Laura Wood.
Senior Advisor & General Counsel Laura Wood, DemocracyNYC: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. As the start of early voting approaches, we want to emphasize that voters don't have to choose between their health and their right to vote. And the DemocracyNYC team is working hard to make sure that New Yorkers know how to vote safely. To that end, with the Department of Health, we have developed a how to vote safely during COVID fact sheet. Starting this week, the fact sheet will be available at city COVID-19 testing sites citywide, including in the hotspot areas. And it can be downloaded at nyc.gov/votesafe in 13 languages – the top 13 spoken citywide. For those who choose to vote in-person, voting safely largely reflect the core four – wear a face covering; keep your hands clean; try to keep six feet apart from others, avoid crowds; and, if you're feeling sick, pick a different day to vote. And this year, that is easy, because you can avoid crowds by voting early. Early voting, as the Mayor said, starts this Saturday, October 24th and runs for nine days through November 1st. That includes two full weekends and five weekdays with early morning and evening hours available.
Additionally, DemocracyNYC, in partnership with the civic engagement commission has developed PSA’s on voting by mail, early voting, and voting rights at the polls. Starting this week, we will be running targeted ads in hotspot zones about voting absentee and early voting. These ads will run on broadcast, streaming, and social media platforms through November 1st. Lastly, we are making sure that New Yorkers have safe transportation options to get to the polls. As the Mayor announced last week, we've partnered with Curb to offer $5 off yellow and green taxi rides during the early voting period. If you want to take advantage, you can download the Curb app and use the code “vote early” from October 24th through November 1st.
Today, we're announcing a partnership with Citi Bike. New Yorkers can get 50 percent off Election Day rides, up to $10, from 4:00 AM to 11:00 PM on November 3rd. Use the code “2020 Vote” on the Citi Bike app to access the discount. Again, I want to encourage everyone to take the time to make a plan to vote, choose how and when it's best for you and make your voice heard. With that, I'll turn it back to the Mayor.
Mayor: Thank you so much, Laura. Thank you to you and everyone at DemocracyNYC. And I know for all of you, it is a labor of love to spread the word and get people engaged and make sure voting is easy and safe. And we're going to do that to make sure all New Yorkers get involved.
Now let's, let's talk about another effort where we worked so hard to get everyone involved. And I have to say, this is really ultimately a pretty amazing story and a tough, tough challenge that, as usual, New Yorkers met and exceeded all expectations – this is about Census 2020. We're now able to talk about our results. And I want to say at the outset, to talk about something where every conceivable obstacle was thrown in our way – the pandemic, all the fear and uncertainty, all the efforts from Washington D.C. to undermine participation, the horrible negative attacks on immigrants, everything that was done to make it impossible for the census to actually get a fair count in New York City. And yet, in the end, after all of this, the self-response rate from New York City – 61.8 percent. That's essentially identical to the rate in 2010, but with so many more challenges in the way. And I just have to say, when you look at this response, it makes me very proud of New Yorkers that people answered this census in such strong numbers. What a vote of confidence in this city. And also, what an amazing action by New Yorkers – with every effort to undermine and discourage them, they still came through. All of you came through. That's an amazing number, given what we were up against. We saw some really great results. Four out of five boroughs, in fact, reached higher response rates than in 2010. We saw in the African-American community, major improvements in the response rate. This is something that everyone should be proud of, but I particularly want to thank our incredible census team that took on this challenge. And they had no quit in them – no matter what was thrown at them, they kept fighting. And I want to thank our director, Julie Menin, and her whole team, and the incredible partners all over the city that joined together and they just would not give up. And when you heard people say, make sure you're counted, they meant it. And they went out there and they did it. So, Julie, congratulations to you and your team. Tell us all about the final results.
Director Julie Menin, NYC Census 2020: Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. And I want to thank you for your support of our efforts, and also thanks to the City Council. So, as the Mayor said, no census has faced headwinds like the 2020 census, whether it was the attempt to add the citizenship question, underfunding the census, constant attacks by the White House, or literally the Supreme Court cutting short our deadline by two weeks. And, if that were not enough, having the fact that when the first mailer went out in March to New Yorkers, COVID hit, and we were literally the epicenter of this global pandemic. As a result of the pandemic, our effort to open over 300 census centers was stymied. And I mentioned that, because in a city where a third of New Yorkers lack access to broadband, that is a true impediment. Now, before COVID hit a year ago, the U.S. Census Bureau predicted that our self-response rate would be 58 percent. And I'm so proud to announce today that not only did our team reach 61.8 percent, but we beat L.A., and Chicago, and Boston, and Philadelphia, and Miami, and Dallas, and Houston and many other areas. And we also beat the U.S. Census Bureau's prediction pre-COVID by close to four points.
So, why is that important? It's so important, because for every household over two people that is counted, that brings New York City $7,000 per year, or $70,000 over 10 years, not to mention, of course, the importance of the political representation. We could not, as the Mayor said, have done this without our closest partners, our citywide partners group, our complete count fund of grantees, faith-based organizations, labor unions, volunteers, and so many others. We have a slide here about the neighborhoods that have improved the most. So, I'll quickly go to that and you can see the Bronx-Parkchester, Queens-Laurelton, Brooklyn-Prospect Lefferts Garden, Staten Island-Park Hill, and Manhattan-Central Harlem, but we have so many other good stories to tell.
Just briefly on the data, our team sent 7 million texts, 4 million phone calls. We had over 1,000 events. And, through our outreach, we assisted half-a-million households to actually complete the census. And the digital ads drove over 1 million clicks throughs to the census website. We had 34 media campaigns in 27 languages. And we had everyone from Cardi B, to Alicia Keys, to Lin Manuel Miranda, to Kal Penn, as well as every-day New Yorkers. And while we certainly have so much to be proud of, the fight isn't over. So, I do want to close with the fact that we want to ensure that the count is accurate. President Trump will be an office in December irrespective of the election. And so, we will obviously closely monitor the data, because we know certainly that there were some issues regarding the door knocking. And we also remain a plaintiff on the case led by Attorney General Tish James before the Supreme Court on November 30th in the Trump Administration's attempt to exclude undocumenteds some Congressional apportionment. So, we need to still remain vigilant.
But, in closing, this campaign really proves that through the right and smart investment and outreach, New Yorkers really come through and we are thrilled with the results today. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Mayor: Thank you so much, Julie. And, everyone, look, this is about the future of this city. So, your effort to respond to this census now is going to give us a much greater sense, a much greater ability to get our fair share. And this is what the census was always about, getting our fair share, and, because New Yorkers came through, we're going to have much more chance of actually getting what we deserve from Washington. But, as Julie said, these next weeks ahead are crucial to make sure that what happens from this point on is fair. And that's why we're going to be engaged in the court process to make sure that what happens in Washington now doesn't further undermine a fair account for New York City. So, thank you, Julie. Thank you to your whole team.
Okay. With that, everybody let's go to indicators. Okay. Number one, daily number of people admitted to New York City hospitals for suspected COVID-19, threshold 200 patients – today's report, 62 patients with a confirmed positivity rate of 19.7 percent for COVID. Number two, new reported cases on a seven-day average, threshold 550 cases – today's report, 496. And number three, percentage of people tested citywide positive for COVID-19, threshold 5 percent – today's report, 2.52 percent. And today's seven-day rolling average number is 1.58 percent.
EDITOR'S NOTE:
Since the mayor only takes questions from eight reporters we could not ask the mayor why the city is pushing one company over another in his speech for voters to obtain discounts only if they have the Curb or Citibike apps. Many people already have to many apps on their phones or tablets, and for the mayor to advertise that New York City is partnering with only these two apps which you must download for the election day discount should be investigated by the New York City Department of Investigation to see if it is legal for the mayor to do what he did.
