Getting high while building high

 CityLand

On October 30, 2023, the Department of Buildings announced a new initiative to help combat overdoses among construction workers. A recent Department of Health survey Health revealed that construction workers led occupational groups in overdose deaths. In response to the Department of Health’s survey, both the Health and Building Departments are taking action to address the dangers of substance abuse and highlight the tools provided by the City to construction workers. Staff from both agencies will visit construction sites and discuss substance abuse issues, fentanyl, Naloxone use and its role in preventing a fatal overdose, work site safety, and how to keep themselves safe on and off construction sites.

The Department of Health survey found that in 2020, 269 construction workers died of an overdose. National data held similarly, with a finding that the construction industry saw the most fatal overdoses out of all other occupations according to the US Centers for Disease Control analysis. The data in the Department of Health’s survey showed that between people 18 to 64 of all races and ethnic groups, those with jobs fitting the ‘Construction and Extraction’ field, which covers multiple specific occupations in the construction industry.

Overall citywide, there has been a steep increase in fatal overdoses, with Fentanyl involved in more than 80 percent of drug overdoses in New York City. Fentanyl is mostly found along with heroin but has also been traced to other substances including illicitly manufactured pills.

To combat this, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene provides free programs to New Yorkers in an effort to increase awareness around overdoses. This effort includes, free naloxone and fentanyl test strips, city-run medication for opioid use disorder programs, and harm reduction resources. More information about how to obtain a free naloxone kit is available here and New Yorkers can call 988 for free confidential crisis counseling, mental health and substance use support, information and referrals.

The Department of Buildings will require all construction workers working on larger and more complex sites to take 40 Site Safety Training which includes a two-hour drug and alcohol awareness class. This class will focus on the harms of substance abuse and the consequences of chemical dependence. The Department of Buildings will also be requesting that contractors and site safety professionals in drug and alcohol safety information be included in their “tool box talks” or pre shift daily meetings.

Mayor Eric Adams said, “The opioid crisis has hurt people in every community and at every phase of life, so we must be comprehensive in our efforts to tackle it and keep New Yorkers safe. New York City is facing a deadly and devastating opioid crisis, and that’s why last month, our administration convened elected leaders, public health officials, and law enforcement from across the nation to develop strategies around reducing and preventing drug use. By educating construction workers on substance use disorders and providing them with the support they need, we are addressing this dire issue and helping the New Yorkers who build and maintain our city.”

 

Governor Kathy Clown let pandemic profiteering donor gouge taxpayers for COVID-19 tests

  

Times Union

 Last December, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration received an offer to buy 26 million at-home coronavirus tests from a New Jersey-based distributor that happened to be a major campaign donor to the governor.

The price offered by Digital Gadgets founder and CEO Charlie Tebele was $13 per test, far steeper than what other companies were proposing for similar rapid antigen tests. Hochul’s administration had just approved a deal with another firm to buy 5 million tests for just $5 each.

Still, the Hochul administration quickly agreed to pay $338 million to Digital Gadgets at the higher per-test price. The state Division of Budget and Hochul’s office signed off on the deal on Dec. 20, the same day Tebele made the proposition.

Despite that tight timeline, Digital Gadgets contends the deal was "thoroughly negotiated."

The Times Union reported in July that Tebele and his family members have donated nearly $300,000 to Hochul’s campaign, including $70,000 before last winter. That's when Hochul's administration signed two purchase orders to buy $637 million in tests. Tebele subsequently hosted a campaign fundraiser for Hochul in April, records show.

While three other companies sold tests to the state Department of Health last winter for $7.80 each or less, Digital Gadgets charged an average of $12.25, according to records provided by the state comptroller's office.

Despite buying 52 million tests in bulk, the administration paid Digital Gadgets as much or more than consumers would pay in a retail store, according to Bill Hammond, senior fellow for health policy at the Empire Center for Public Policy.

Hammond reviewed the records obtained by the Times Union and was struck by the significantly higher price the administration paid Digital Gadgets, resulting in hundreds of millions in additional spending.

“The Hochul administration is saying it was not because they were a donor, but should answer the question of why they so eagerly got into business with this very high-priced vendor — and bought more than half their total amount from this one supplier — when they knew it was charging a much higher rate than they had been paying,” Hammond said.

Hochul has argued that Digital Gadgets was uniquely able to deliver a significant quantity of rapid tests before schools reopened in early January, a time when the highly contagious omicron variant was threatening to keep them closed. She's noted the state was getting "slammed" by the variant by mid-December. 

"I was not aware that this was a company that had been supportive of me," Hochul said during a July 20 press briefing, referring to the campaign donations. "I don't keep track of that. My team, they have no idea."

 "But the fact that there was someone who could meet that need at that time allowed us to deliver critically important test kits when nobody else — including the federal government — could get their hands on it," she said. "As a result, we got kids back in school in January, as opposed to sitting home another semester."

But as Hammond has written, the administration continued paying for significant quantities of Digital Gadgets tests after the omicron wave subsided. 

The $637 million in spending began on Dec. 30, and the Department of Health made 239 separate payments through March 25 to Tebele's company, paying for the tests as they were delivered. Sixty-two percent of the payments, or roughly $395 million, were made after COVID-19 hospitalization levels had returned to pre-spike levels in late February, according to Hammond. By that time, tests from other vendors were more available. 

According to Digital Gadgets, the bulk of the tests had been delivered by late February and the company was owed significantly more than $395 million at that point.

Though the state's purchase orders were signed in December and January, New York likely would have been able to stop making the purchases before spending the whole $637 million.

In March 2020, state Budget Director Robert Mujica issued a directive to all state agencies instructing them to include "into all COVID-19-related purchases" language reserving the right to terminate those orders with 30 days’ notice "for any reason." And for "medical equipment, personal protective equipment, or similar products and services," the state could terminate an order with only two days’ notice.

Agencies could seek an exemption, but there's no indication the health department sought one for the Digital Gadgets' orders.

The Department of Health declined to say whether it could have rescinded its deal with Digital Gadgets once the omicron variant waned, saying it does not comment on "legal hypotheticals."

Governor Kathy Clown made Contractor Gadget a multi-millionaire

 

Times Union

 One New York City family, led by entrepreneur Charlie Tebele, has donated nearly $300,000 to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s campaign.

Records also show that since December, Tebele's company was paid $637 million in taxpayer funds to provide the state Department of Health — an agency controlled by Hochul — with at-home COVID-19 test kits. The huge expenditure was made without the agency conducting competitive bidding.

Tebele is the longtime owner of Digital Gadgets LLC, a New Jersey-based wholesaler of hoverboards and other electronic devices that sells its wares to companies like the home shopping network QVC. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, the company pivoted to supplying medical equipment, and began landing major government contracts in New York. Though Digital Gadgets has not always delivered as promised, it has continued to reap major government payments, while the family has kept donating heavily to select politicians.

The $637 million from the Department of Health began on  Dec. 30, and the agency made 239 separate payments through March 25 to Tebele's company, according to state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli's OpenBookNY website.

The website, however, provides no record of a formal contract being signed between Digital Gadgets and the Department of Health. Jennifer Freeman, a spokeswoman for DiNapoli's office, said that no such contract existed: The Department of Health entered into "purchase orders" instead with the company, she said.

"These purchase orders did not come to (DiNapoli's office) for review and approval," Freeman said.

On Nov. 26, Hochul had signed an executive order declaring a new COVID-19 state of emergency and suspending certain aspects of state finance law. The order suspended competitive bidding for certain contracts as well as the normal contract review and approval process conducted by DiNapoli's office, which oversees state government spending.

As the pandemic has subsided and surged, Hochul has extended the executive order on a monthly basis; its current expiration date is Aug. 13.

Crappy Christmas Caption Dr. Dave's successor

Three more months of Dr. Chokshi

 NBC New York

 

Dr. Dave Chokshi, the commissioner of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, will stay on in that role through mid-March, Mayor-elect Eric Adams said Wednesday.

Chokshi will then be replaced by Dr. Ashwin Vasan, a primary care physician and mental health expert.

Chokshi, often referred to as "the city's doctor," became health commissioner in Aug. 2020. He also remains a practicing primary care physician at Bellevue.

The Blaz gives ultimatum to health workers

 

AMNY

Starting next month, Mayor Bill de Blasio officially announced Wednesday, all New York City health care employees will be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine or face mandatory weekly testing — and even possible suspension from their job.

The aggressive new COVID safety requirement begins on Monday, Aug. 2 and applies to all NYC Health and Hospitals staff and Department of Health clinical workers. Those who fail to follow the mandate will be subject to “suspension without pay,” the mayor said during his Wednesday morning press conference. 

For de Blasio, it comes down to one thing: halting the spread of the Delta variant, a far more contagious and potent version of COVID-19.

“This is about keeping people safe and stopping the Delta variant. If we want to beat COVID once and for all, we have to stop the Delta variant,” de Blasio said. 

According to City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi, the mandate applies to “all of our clinic-based staff” which includes, nurses, doctors, social workers, custodians and registrars.

Employees who are vaccinated must show a proof of vaccination and that at any time, health care employees can decide they want to get the shot, and will no longer be required to get weekly testing. 

“The simple fact is that if you’re vaccinated, virtually every activity is safer,” Chokshi said. “Because of the Delta variant, increasingly, the choice is between infection or vaccination and that can mean the difference between life and death. Vaccination has been and continues to be the single most important precaution we can take to interact with the public and our colleagues.” 

He added that the plan for the weeks ahead is to extend this requirement to “additional Health Department staff” beyond the clinic staff.

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Governor Cuomo's Health Department plans to downsize the only hospital in Rockaway during a pandemic

  

Queens Eagle

Months after hundreds of sick and dying COVID-19 patients flooded the emergency room and critical care units at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway, the state Health Department is backing a plan to slash beds and gut the medical center.

A consulting firm working with the New York State Department of Health has proposed cutting capacity, eliminating hundreds of employees and turning the Peninsula’s only medical center into a 15-bed “micro hospital,” according to information shared with the Eagle.

St. John’s is located in Far Rockaway’s zip code 11691, home to New York City’s second-highest COVID death rate during the peak of the pandemic. At least 418 zip code residents have so far died of COVID-19, still more in the predominantly Black surrounding communities, according to city data. 

St. John’s treated the very first known case of COVID-19 in Queens nearly one year ago.

Last week, however, New York Health Department officials and the consulting firm ToneyKorf Partners LLC presented St. John’s administrators with three drastic cost-cutting proposals, with each plan set to eliminate hospital staff and services, according to the information shared with the Eagle.

One proposal would reduce the number of beds at St. John’s from 257 to 91 while eliminating obstetrics, newborn and pediatric services. Another proposal would turn St. John’s into a 30-bed “health plex” with 337 staff members, down from a current total of 1,126, according to state figures. 

The final option would transform the facility into a 15-bed “micro hospital.” Health Department officials favored that proposal, according to a person familiar with the conversations between the state and the hospital.

St. John’s Board Chair Rev. Lawrence Provenzano said the “micro hospital” proposal would eliminate 1,000 employees and devastate the predominantly low-income and working class communities who depend on the safety net hospital.

“The Department of Health is abandoning any consideration of the documented community health needs of this overwhelming underserved population,” Provenzano said. 

“How can you reduce health services from this community when they clearly need more? How many more people would have died if the Department of Health’s plan for St. John’s to become a 15-bed micro hospital would have happened before the peak of the pandemic?” he added.

Provenzano called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to discard a plan that would cut funding to the hospital and force it to downsize.

Governor Cuomo got screwed by a sex toy company he contracted to make ventilators

NY Post

 Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration got swindled trying to buy millions of dollars of Chinese medical gear amid the coronavirus crisis — and has been forced to hire a law firm in Hong Kong in a bid to recoup the taxpayer money it lost, The Post has learned.

The state Department of Health signed a $125,000 contract with the overseas lawyers, Gall Solicitors late last year, according to records posted online by the state Comptroller’s Office.

The one-year pact was exempted from a “pre-audit” by Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli under pandemic-related emergency powers Cuomo granted himself on March 7 — and which some lawmakers now want to revoke due to the spiraling controversy over New York’s nursing home deaths.

Earlier this month, The Post exclusively revealed that a top aide privately admitted Cuomo’s administration hid the number of resident deaths in hospitals from lawmakers and the public due to fear that federal prosecutors would use it “against us.” That has sparked calls for Cuomo to be impeached and also a reported federal Justice Department probe.

Officials declined to provide The Post with a copy of the legal retainer contract or details of the underlying dispute.

But a Cuomo spokesman acknowledged that the DOH hired Gall on Dec. 24 “to help us pursue recovery of state funds there, related to procurement.”

“The contract was just approved and papers will be filed soon, and we’ll reserve further comment until then,” spokesman Rich Azzopardi said.

The DOH previously hired the white-shoe law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom to vet its purchases of coronavirus-related medical equipment and supplies.

That agreement was struck on March 1 and could cost taxpayers as much as $1.25 million, according to the comptroller’s website.

“Skadden was retained to provide much-needed expertise to ensure that the lifesaving equipment the State procured met ‎FDA requirements before the equipment was distributed to hospitals,” DOH spokesman Gary Holmes said.

The state rushed into more than $1 billion worth of deals for medical supplies and equipment last year — only to later seek partial refunds amounting to about one-third of the total, the New York Times reported in mid-December, shortly before the DOH hired Gall.

The money at issue included a $12.5 million deposit for 1,000 ventilators from Please Me LLC, a company that had never before sold the high-tech devices but whose product line included sex toys, children’s books and other items, The Times said.

No, you are wrong Cuomo

 

Gothamist

In New York and beyond, the coronavirus pandemic has ushered in an unusual new conversance with public health metrics, with government officials now using testing and hospitalization data as a gauge for the severity of the virus and important policy decisions.

No metric has drawn more attention—or controversy—than the positivity rate. The number, which measures the percent of tests that turn up positive and serves as a proxy for infection rate, has been used to justify economic reopenings as well as business and school shutdowns.

For example, Governor Andrew Cuomo has said that he would order schools to close should local positivity rate rises above 9 percent, an increasingly likely possibility given the surge of infections.

In spite of the high stakes, New York state officials have been calculating positivity on a flawed basis, according to several experts. The criticism stems from the state's decision to fold in a type of rapid test known as antigen tests, which are less sensitive than polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

"That's not what the professional guidance is," said Dr. Jay Varma, Mayor Bill de Blasio's top health adviser. "It's not what the WHO does or the CDC or the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists does."

The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, which advises the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies, has said that a positive antigen test should be considered a probable case of COVID-19, not a confirmed case. In turn, the CDC has defined its positivity rate as based on PCR tests only.

Despite the limitation of antigen tests, their benefits are clear: the tests can provide results within 15 minutes and can cost as little as $5, whereas PCR tests cost around $100 at national labs. Antigen testing has proliferated across the country in nontraditional testing centers, like schools and nursing homes, especially as the demand for testing increases.

In New York City, the tests are now available at pharmacies, CityMDs and doctor's offices. Drawn by their quick turnaround time, many people are unaware of the caveats.

During a recent seven-day period, there were nearly 88,000 antigen tests performed in one week, although city health officials cautioned that not all antigen test results are being reported to the city.

According to Cuomo, the state performs “hundreds of thousands" of antigen tests per week.

Dr. Ian Lipkin, a renowned epidemiologist at Columbia University and testing expert, agreed with Varma that antigen tests should be separated from PCR tests. The latter are currently considered the gold standard in terms of accuracy.

"You need to distinguish those clearly," he said. "It's reasonable to say these are PCR, these are antigen, but I don't think you should mix the two."

Cuomo blames Staten Island, but data says something else

From AMNY:

Not for lack of political willpower, Staten Island has come to represent 25% of all COVID-19 deaths in New York City amid the second wave of the pandemic, even though the borough represents just 5% of the city's population. Governor Andrew Cuomo, during a Wednesday press conference, emphasized the political nature of this reality as a direct result of misdirection from local leaders taking opposition to guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which have influenced some of the measures put in place by the state limiting dining and other activities.

Okay, now here's the actual data from NYCDOH's site as of yesterday.

Looks like a total of 20 COVID deaths per day in the entire city.

Bronx has about 3 deaths per day, Brooklyn has 4.

Manhattan has about 2 deaths per day, Queens and Staten Island have 4.

So it's been a while since I had 3rd grade math, but how does Staten Island have 1/4 of the deaths in NYC when 4/20 is not 25%?

Isn't 20 deaths a day relatively small compared to where we were back in April?

Now, let's do hospitalizations.

This doesn't really look all that skewed.

On 12/1, the city had 4088 new cases, while Staten Island had 342. This translates to ~8% of infections. Two other boroughs have roughly the same number of deaths that SI does but a lot more cases. If the death rate on SI is worse than anywhere else, the reasons probably have more to do with the overall health of the population and the quality of the care there than "if only they had worn masks!"

So, why are you reading all of this here rather than in the paid media who investigates nothing Cuomo says?

City's and State's color-coded maps don't line up

Above is the map of the "yellow zone" that our esteemed governor imposed on our fair borough which has not been updated since last month. Below is the up to date map of % positivity from NYC DOH. The yellow zone doesn't really match where the virus is supposedly at its worst, and it's hard to believe that there hasn't been a class action suit against this stupidity. You can see neighborhood by neighborhood stats here.

Give blood, get diabetes

 

NY Post 

  New York City’s blood supply is so low that the de Blasio administration is dangling prizes to donors — including a year’s worth of Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

Hizzoner pitched his answer to the blood crisis at a press briefing Tuesday — where it was revealed the city only has enough of a supply stocked up for about three days, as opposed to the usual seven days.

 And the Hospitals and City Health Commissioners don't utter a peep.

City finally releases coronavirus map data by zip code

NYC Health

 THE CITY

  Asked about the data on NY1 late Monday, de Blasio called the disparities “horrible.” 

“What we’re talking about here is the really painful, really unfair history of race and class in this city and in this country,” he said. 

 The mayor cited the city’s work to secure insurance or medical care for all its residents to address the preconditions associated with poor COVID outcomes — which include diabetes, hypertension and compromised immune systems. 

“These are things that obviously get back again not just to racial disparity but to economic disparity — to folks who never got the health care they deserved because they didn’t have the money they deserved,” de Blasio said.

 Elected officials have argued that access to testing has not been equitable across neighborhoods, and a number of them said they’d been pushing City Hall to release more specific data on deaths sooner. 

Councilmember Inez Barron (D-Brooklyn), who represents Starrett City, said her district was left to suffer for weeks as she pleaded with the mayor’s office to release more details about neighborhood impacts of the virus. 

“Why aren’t residents — which is the hotbed for this disease — why aren’t these people being tested? It’s illogical to me,” she said. “They know that senior concentrations, and black and brown communities and other areas are hotbeds, but yet you don’t make provisions in the very areas where we see the numbers soaring.”

Governor Cuomo taps billionaire Bloomberg to implement a COVID-19 tech surveillance apparatus

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and Mike Bloomberg today announced a new nation-leading COVID-19 contact tracing program to control the infection rate of the disease. Mike Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies have committed organizational support and technical assistance to help build and execute this new program. The contact tracing program will be done in coordination with the downstate region as well as New Jersey and Connecticut and will serve as an important resource to gather best practices and as a model that can be replicated across the nation. There has never been a contact tracing program implemented at this scale either in New York or anywhere in the United States. The program will launch immediately.

As part of this effort, The Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University will build an online curriculum and training program for contact tracers. The New York State Department of Health will work with Bloomberg Philanthropies to help identify and recruit contact tracer candidates for the training program, including staff from the State Department of Health, investigators from various state agencies, hundreds of tracers from downstate counties and SUNY and CUNY students in medical fields. Bloomberg Philanthropies will also work with New York State to establish an expert panel to review the work of the program, and create a best in class model that other states can use for contact tracing.

 We're all eager to begin loosening restrictions on our daily lives and our economy. But in order to do that as safely as possible, we first have to put in place systems to identify people who may have been exposed to the virus and support them as they isolate," said Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg LP, three-term mayor of New York City. "I'm honored to partner with Governor Cuomo and New York State to help do that, by creating a new contact tracing program on a widespread scale. Coupled with far more testing, it will help us drive the virus into a corner -- saving lives and allowing more people to begin getting back to work."

Mayor de Blasio has avoided a health clinic CEO's charitable request to provide PPE supplies

NY Post

New York City is desperately pleading for healthcare workers and equipment for the fight against the coronavirus — but a local doctor who has offered his network of 600 beds and 100 physicians said city and state bureaucrats have ignored him.

Dr. Yan Katsnelson said he’s been trying for weeks to get the offices of Mayor Bill de Blasio, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the city and state health departments to take him up on his offer.

His 30 temporarily closed health clinics — equipped with 5,000-plus masks and oxygen machines — are collecting dust, he said, while overwhelmed local hospitals are forced to treat patients in hallways and waiting-room chairs.

“De Blasio said right now I will take beds anywhere and everywhere. What the hell is he talking about?” said Katsnelson, claiming his staff contacted City Hall “several times” in the last two weeks offering to take in COVID-19 patients or relieve hospitals of non-coronavirus patients.

“My CEO is desperate to offer a helping hand with our equipped medical facilities and physicians, [nurse practitioners] and [physician assistants],” a Katsnelson employee wrote in a March 19 email to city Health Department Assistant Commissioner Jennifer Rakeman, state Bureau of Communicable Disease Control director Daniel Kuhles, state Division of Epidemiology director Debra Blog, and others.

The employee also spoke briefly to de Blasio aide Freddi Goldstein later that day. She also contacted the governor’s office, said Katsnelson, a Chicago-based cardiovascular surgeon who owns a national network of vascular and fibroid clinics.

They haven’t heard back since mid-March.

“Telephone calls were made … voice mails were left and not returned,” the employee said of the city and state runaround.

Queens has passed 10,000 people testing positive for coronavirus

QNS

New data that the city’s Health Department released Sunday morning shows the coronavirus pandemic continuing to take a horrific toll on the five boroughs.

Approximately 3,150 new cases and 161 deaths occurred in the last day, the data revealed. As of 9:30 a.m. March 29, there were 32,308 positive coronavirus cases and 678 related fatalities.

Nearly 24 hours earlier, the Health Department accounted for 29,158 positive cases and 517 deaths. In little more than 24 hours, the number of coronavirus patients went up 10.4%, while fatalities rose 31.1%.

Queens now has more than 10,000 confirmed coronavirus patients and continues to be the city’s hot zone in the outbreak. The 9:30 a.m. March 29 numbers revealed that the “World’s Borough” has 10,373 cases, 219 of which were fatal.

Brooklyn has the second-highest coronavirus cases in the city with 8,451 infections and 168 deaths, followed by the Bronx with 6,145 infections and 153 deaths, Manhattan with 5,438 infections and 94 deaths, and Staten Island with 1,866 infections and 43 deaths.

Approximately 20% of all coronavirus patients in New York City (6,287) have required hospitalization, the Health Department noted.

It's only March, but this is the worst and most dangerous tweet of 2020

Update: Also from de Blasio's Health Commissioner

Shout out to White Rose for capturing this.

Hospital closings in the last two decades from state budget cuts shows utterly stupid foresight

 NY Post

New York has lost a staggering 20,000 hospital beds over the last two decades to budget cuts and insurance overhauls, complicating local and state efforts to battle the coronavirus, according to records and experts.

The Empire State had 73,931 licensed hospital beds in 2000 before years of cuts and closures shrank the number to just 53,000 in 2020, according to records obtained by the New York State Nurses Association from the state Health Department and stats provided by officials.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday the health officials believe they will need anywhere from 55,000 to 110,000 hospital beds to treat the expected wave of coronavirus victims.

“New York has closed too many beds. They went too far,” said Judy Wessler, former head of the NY Commission on the Public’s Health System, about the 28 percent drop in beds.

Those cutbacks mean the state is in a significantly deeper deficit as it searches for ways to expand its capacity to treat COVID-19 victims.

“This is going to crash the health care system,” Cuomo warned, as he again reiterated his request to President Trump that the Army Corps of Engineers be dispatched to help New York state build emergency hospital capacity.

City orders school officials to obfuscate any display of coronavirus symptons of faculty and students

 

THE CITY

Two days before closing a New York City public school building where a student tested positive for the coronavirus, Department of Education officials sent out an internal memo advising staff not to report anyone with potential symptoms to the city Department of Health, THE CITY has learned.

The memo from schools headquarters to staff systemwide went out Tuesday morning, days after Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed that three public school teachers who’d been in a coronavirus hot zone had to be tested. At the same time, his health commissioner issued an order mandating that educators, first responders and city health care workers deemed at risk must be tested.

The memo lists a number of precautions to stem the spread of the virus, but explicitly makes clear the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene —  the command center for tracking the virus in New York City — should not be contacted.

“At the moment, there is no reason for any school to call DOHMH to report potential or confirmed cases. DOHMH is receiving information from about positive test results strictly from laboratories. We can support our colleagues at DOHMH by keeping their phones clear to speak with laboratories.”

Mid-morning Thursday, more than 24 hours after THE CITY asked about the logic of this approach, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene spokesperson Stephanie Buhle wrote in an email, “Our guidance is abundantly clear: if you’re sick, stay home. Physicians and public health professionals guide when testing is appropriate.”

An hour earlier, de Blasio announced that two schools co-located in a South Bronx building — the Laboratory School of Finance and Technology and South Bronx Preparatory — were shut down temporarily “due to a student’s self-confirmed positive case of COVID-19,” the designation for the coronavirus illness.

The statement notes that the Department of Education will “completely disinfect the building” and that the Health Department will “trace close contacts of this individual [student] to recommend quarantine and testing if necessary.” The two schools enroll a total of more than 1,300 students in grades six through 12.

Subsequently, schools officials tweeted, “At this time there is no indication that students in these schools need to be tested” but advised them to stay in their homes until further notice. The school building was shut down for 24 hours following a protocol issued last week by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

City Hall has not yet released any details on the circumstances that led to the student being tested for COVID-19, but during a news conference Thursday afternoon, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza confirmed the protocol advising staff not to notify DOHMH of suspected cases, explaining that the DOE did not want to “inundate” the Health Department.

Queens restaurants have a rat influx issue

Queens Eagle

Queens eateries feature some of the best food in New York City — plenty of unwanted guests, too.

The borough’s restaurants saw the biggest jump in mice- and roach-related health code violations in recent years, with 3,138 reported violations in 2018. That total is 70.5 percent higher than in 2017, according to a new report by the apartment-finding website RentHop.

Though only 7.1 percent of Queens restaurants earned B and C inspection grades from the Department of Health as of September 2019, the borough still saw the biggest jump in mice- and roach-related health code violations between 2017 and 2018. As of September 2019, a total of 2,399 mice- and roach-related health code violations have been reported at Queens restaurants.

Four Queens restaurants make the list of the 10 worst pest offenders in the city from 2016 to September 2019. Three are in South Richmond Hill — Greenwood Quality Bakery, Nest Restaurant & Bar and Golden Punjab Indian Restaurant — and one, Hong Kong House, is in Astoria.

Ozone Park is the worst in Queens in terms of restaurants with B and C grades. Nine out of 50 restaurants in the neighborhood, or 18 percent of eateries, have earned a B or C grade. Springfield Gardens also showed a high rate of B/C-grade restaurants.