Governor Hochul Updates New Yorkers on State's Progress Combating COVID-19 - JUNE 6, 2022

Statewide 7-Day Average Case Rate Has Declined Over Past 20 Consecutive Days - Lowest Since April 13

Statewide 7-Day Average Hospitalization Continues to Decline -- Lowest Since May 12

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

11 Statewide Deaths Reported Yesterday  

 Governor Kathy Hochul today updated New Yorkers on the state's progress combating COVID-19.

"While numbers are heading in the right direction, we must remain vigilant against this virus and continue boosting our preparedness for any potential surges later this year," Governor Hochul said. "I encourage all New Yorkers to make use of the tools we have available to us to keep each other safe and healthy. Be sure to keep up to date with vaccinations and booster doses in order to protect yourself and those around you from serious illness and hospitalization. Test often, especially if you are experiencing symptoms, and talk to your doctor about available treatments if you test positive."

Today's data is summarized briefly below:       

• Cases Per 100k - 20.11
• 7-Day Average Cases Per 100k - 28.86
• Test Results Reported - 66,856
• Total Positive - 3,930
• Percent Positive - 5.80%**
• 7-Day Average Percent Positive - 6.07%**
• Patient Hospitalization -  2,127 (+31)  
• Patients Newly Admitted - 242
• Patients in ICU - 216 (-14)
• Patients in ICU with Intubation - 84 (-2)   
• Total Discharges - 309,475 (+223)  
• New deaths reported by healthcare facilities through HERDS - 11 
• Total deaths reported by healthcare facilities through HERDS - 56,211

   ** Due to the test reporting policy change by the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) 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 (HHS) 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 - 71,670

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.         

• Total vaccine doses administered - 39,003,605 
• Total vaccine doses administered over past 24 hours - 6,429
• Total vaccine doses administered over past 7 days - 77,577
• Percent of New Yorkers ages 18 and older with at least one vaccine dose - 92.6%   
• Percent of New Yorkers ages 18 and older with completed vaccine series - 84.1%   
• Percent of New Yorkers ages 18 and older with at least one vaccine dose (CDC) - 95.0%   
• Percent of New Yorkers ages 18 and older with completed vaccine series (CDC) - 87.5%   
• Percent of New Yorkers ages 12-17 with at least one vaccine dose (CDC) - 83.7%   
• Percent of New Yorkers ages 12-17 with completed vaccine series (CDC) - 73.6%   
• Percent of all New Yorkers with at least one vaccine dose - 82.2%   
• Percent of all New Yorkers with completed vaccine series - 74.5%   
• Percent of all New Yorkers with at least one vaccine dose (CDC) - 90.7%   
• Percent of all New Yorkers with completed vaccine series (CDC) - 77.5%      

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, June 3, 2022	Saturday, June 4, 2022	Sunday, June 5, 2022
Bronx	4.01%	3.81%	3.68%
Kings	5.07%	4.93%	4.88%
New York	6.35%	6.11%	6.03%
Queens	5.88%	5.89%	5.58%
Richmond	5.96%	5.65%	5.65%

Borough	Tuesday, May 31, 2022	Wednesday, June 1, 2022	Thursday, June 2, 2022
Bronx	4.15%	4.07%	4.07%
Kings	5.80%	5.28%	5.00%
New York	6.49%	6.51%	6.44%
Queens	6.09%	6.20%	6.19%
Richmond	6.36%	6.11%	5.93%

FORMER GENERAL COUNSEL OF NYC BOARD OF ELECTIONS PLEADS GUILTY TO TWO COUNTS OF OFFICIAL MISCONDUCT IN CONNECTION WITH UNAUTHORIZED CONDUCT WITH AN INTERN AT THE BOE AND ANOTHER INDIVIDUAL

 

 Jocelyn E. Strauber, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Investigation (“DOI”), issued the following statement on today’s guilty plea by the former General Counsel of the New York City Board of Elections (BOE”) to two counts of Official Misconduct in connection with the unauthorized exercise of his official duties, specifically misconduct involving other individuals, including an intern, who worked at BOE. DOI began investigating the matter in 2020 after receiving an anonymous complaint regarding inappropriate activity by the defendant with interns. DOI worked in partnership with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office on the investigation.

 STEVEN H. RICHMAN, 63, of Brooklyn, N.Y., pleaded guilty in New York Criminal Court to two counts of Official Misconduct, which are class A misdemeanors. He received an unconditional discharge as part of the plea agreement. RICHMAN is required to report his conviction to the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court within 30 days.

 DOI Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber said, “This defendant exploited his position of authority with the BOE when he conditioned potential future job prospects for an intern he supervised, and another individual to whom he offered potential employment, on meeting improper demands to gratify his own personal interests. This conduct is not only outrageous and shameful; it is criminal. As a result, Steven Richman has acknowledged and pleaded guilty to Official Misconduct. I thank the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for their commitment to working with DOI on this important investigation.”

 According to the defendant’s plea allocution to two counts of Official Misconduct, RICHMAN was responsible for the hiring, supervision, and discipline of the legal interns and other staff at the BOE, where he served as General Counsel from 1999 to 2021. In that capacity, RICHMAN knowingly engaged in an unauthorized exercise of his official functions, in order to obtain a personal benefit. Specifically, in the summer of 2017, RICHMAN convinced an intern he supervised that he could help the intern obtain a job as a security guard at political events, if the intern could pass a so-called “physical fitness assessment” to be administered by RICHMAN. RICHMAN used the BOE offices, after official business hours, to conduct the assessment, measuring the intern’s body parts, placing the intern in wrestling holds and having the intern place RICHMAN in wrestling holds, and repeating the “assessment” several times thereafter. RICHMAN had no immediate intention of securing the intern a job as a security guard and never took any steps toward securing such a job. Separately, in August 2020, RICHMAN convinced another individual that he could use his General Counsel position to secure the individual a job as a security guard at a political event and that the individual would have to pass a purported physical fitness evaluation that would be administered by RICHMAN. RICHMAN and the individual entered the BOE offices on Sunday, August 16, 2020, and after the individual completed an interview and paperwork, RICHMAN performed an “assessment” that was similar to the one RICHMAN conducted of the intern in 2017. In the 2020 incident, RICHMAN took photos during the “assessment,” and did not take any steps toward securing the individual a job as a security guard.

 RICHMAN was employed by the BOE from January 1999 until he resigned in January 2021 in the middle of this investigation. At that time, he received a salary of $193,730.

 Commissioner Strauber thanked Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his staff for their prosecution of this matter. Assistant District Attorney Daniel Passeser of the District Attorney’s Major Economic Crimes Bureau is handling the case.

 At DOI, the investigation was handled by DOI’s Office of the Inspector General for the BOE, specifically Special Investigator Gina N. Diaz, under the supervision of Deputy Inspector General Trenton Sweeney, Inspectors General Juve Hippolyte and Eleonora Rivkin, Deputy Commissioner/ Chief of Investigations Dominick Zarrella and First Deputy Commissioner Daniel G. Cort.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz - Virtual Town Hall Meeting on Tuesday, June 7 at 6:30pm

 

• TOWN HALL MEETING •

What's Happening in the 81st Assembly District?

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REMINDER: Virtual Town Hall on June 7

Dear Neighbor: I am inviting you to join me on Tuesday, June 7 to recap the legislative session and discuss community concerns. I will be hosting a virtual town hall meeting, and it would be great to have you there. WHEN: Tuesday, June 7 from 6:30pm to 8pm REGISTER: dinowitz.us/townhall Please register in advance, and submit any questions you may have. We will be answering questions submitted ahead of time first, and will try to get to as many questions asked during the event as possible given time constraints. Sincerely, Jeffrey Dinowitz Member of Assembly

State Comptroller DiNapoli Statement on Signing of New Legislative Package on Gun Control

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli issued the following statement today regarding Governor Hochul's signing of a new legislative package addressing gun control: "Gun violence in our nation has gotten worse and hurts too many families. From a grocery store in Buffalo to an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas; this scourge knows no geographic boundaries. The gun control bills signed into law by Governor Hochul today are common sense measures that will help keep our communities safer and give more tools to law enforcement to prevent easy access to guns. The Governor and lawmakers should be commended for responding so quickly after the horrific massacre at Tops Friendly Markets that took the lives of ten innocent people. This is an important step but we must take many more steps forward to confront the gun violence, racism and mental health issues that contributed to these tragedies."

NYC PUBLIC ADVOCATE'S STATEMENT ON THE GOVERNOR SIGNING NEW GUN SAFETY LEGISLATION

 

"The gun safety measures that became law in New York today, including raising the age to buy semi-automatic weapons, strengthening the Red Flag law, and requiring microstamping, are important components in the overall strategy to save lives.

"I’m glad to see the governor sign them into law quickly after passage, but frustrated and perplexed that it took this long, this much devastation, for this issue and these bills to become a priority. This is particularly galling given how long it will be until measures like microstamping take effect.

"It’s critical to know that while these bills are vital, they are not a panacea. They especially lack impact on daily city gun violence and must be paired with additional prevention efforts we know work. This highlights the massive gap in the state budget between what is needed to address this violence, and what was allocated. It is my hope that the city budget helps to overcome this shortfall in the immediate term, and that the passage of these bills indicates a new set of priorities in Albany that will lead the state to further invest in preventing gun violence."