Coronavirus Updates: Positivity Rate In NY State Stays Below 1%

This is our daily update of breaking COVID-19 news for Friday, September 11th, 2020. Previous daily updates can be found here, and up-to-date statistics are here.

New York City is in Phase 4 of reopening now, which includes zoos, botanical gardens, museums, and gyms. A look at preparing for the spread of coronavirus is here, and if you have lingering questions about the virus, here is our regularly updated coronavirus FAQ. 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's the latest:

• Teachers' Union Says There Are At Least 16 COVID-19 Cases Among School Staff
• Photos: The Museum Of Natural History Has Reopened, And There’s Almost No One In There
• MTA Will Issue $50 Fines To Riders Who Don't Comply With Mask-Wearing Rules

3:30 p.m. The positivity rate for coronavirus testing in New York state has now stayed below 1% for 35 straight days, according to Governor Andrew Cuomo's office.

As of Thursday, .98% of nearly 90,000 test results reported to New York State were positive. There were five confirmed deaths from COVID-19.

The news comes on the same day that Cuomo and other government officials, including Vice President Mike Pence and Joe Biden, the former vice president and Democratic candidate for president, arrived in New York City to commemorate the September 11 attacks in Lower Manhattan.

Roughly 2,700 people died in New York that day, an unthinkable death toll that has since been surpassed by the pandemic. More than 23,000 people in New York City alone have died from coronavirus.

On Thursday, during his press conference, Mayor Bill de Blasio invoked the memory of 9/11 as a reminder of the city's ability to overcome tragedy.

“People grieved with us, but they also admired New York City in that moment of crisis,” he said. “And now we find ourselves in a new and different crisis, and once again, people all over this country, people all over this world are looking at this city with tremendous awe.”

Miami-Dade And Broward Schools Cleared For Resuming In-Person Classes

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced Friday that Miami-Dade and Broward counties will be moving to the state's second phase of reopening, which would allow public schools to hold in-person classes.

"This is really, really important. We've had a very difficult six months but it's been very difficult for kids," DeSantis said, according to NBC Miami. "Many of them did a good job under the circumstances but it's just not the same."

Schools may open this month, according to Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.

Remote learning, deSantis said, would still be an option for parents.

Along with New York, which is set to hold its first day of classes on September 21st, the reopenings of schools in Florida are being closely watched by the rest of the country. The state has said that about 1.6 million students have returned to school for in person classes in Florida, with another 1.4 million students beginning the year online. One month in, infections among school-age children in the state have risen by 34%.

DeSantis, a Republican governor who is a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, has been faulted for a slow and ineffective response to the pandemic. School districts have clashed with him over the reopening of schools as well as the release of school testing data, which the state has instructed districts to keep private.

Miami-Dade County is the fourth largest school district in the United States.

According to Johns Hopkins University's coronavirus tracking website, the positivity rate in Florida is 13.4%.

Harvard Study Suggests Virus Impact On Young People Is Underestimated

A new Harvard research letter published in JAMA found that coronavirus still carries substantial risk to young people, undercutting the notion that the disease is only risky for older individuals.

"Given the sharply rising rates of COVID-19 infection in young adults, these findings underscore the importance of infection prevention measures in this age group," the authors wrote.

In a study of 3,222 hospitalized coronavirus patients aged 18 to 34 years, 21% required intensive care, 10% needed a ventilator, 2.7% died, and 3% required further care after hospitalization. The mortality rate was higher among those who had obesity, hypertension, as well as among males.

Consistent with prior demographic findings, more than half of these patients requiring hospitalization were Black or Hispanic.

The research establishes that "COVID-19 does not spare young people," wrote Dr. Dr. Mitchell Katz, a deputy editor at JAMA Internal Medicine who is also the head of New York City's public hospital system, in an editorial.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that the risk for severe illness from COVID-19 increases with age. According to the CDC, 8 out of 10 coronavirus deaths reported in the United States have been for adults aged 65 years and older.

But during the summer, both the CDC and World Health Organization identified young people as the main drivers of the virus, responsible for surges across continents.

“People in their 20s, 30s and 40s are increasingly driving the spread,” Takeshi Kasai, the WHO’s Western Pacific regional director, said at a news briefing last month. “The epidemic is changing.”

The latest research comes as colleges across the country are trying to reopen their campuses and dorms with disastrous results in some cases.

Here in New York, the State University of New York at Oneonta ended in-person classes last week after more than 650 people tested positive. Today it is being reported that SUNY Albany is seeing a "very concerning" spike in cases.

On Tuesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo said that colleges will be required to notify the state Department of Health if they find 100 cases in a two-week period.