Thread by @MarkLevineNYC

NYC is averaging 40k+ covid cases/day. Over 4,500 are hospitalized, and that # is now growing faster than at any point since Mar, 2020.

We need to act now to slow this wave, protect our hospitals, and support the sick.

Here 👇are 16 concrete steps NYC should take now. 🧵

1. Clear messaging to the public that the next two weeks are a time to avoid large gatherings, work from home if possible, and generally limit in-person social activities.

2. Offer strong guidance to the public that use of cloth masks is no longer advised. Distribute free, high-quality masks (kf94 or higher) in communities throughout the city.

3. Extend mask mandates to fitness establishments, indoor entertainment and all indoor gathering places, regardless of vaccination status.

4. Define being fully vaccinated as having been boosted. Announce a date by which this new standard must be met for those working in healthcare and nursing homes.

5. Set up a system (via web, phone and text message) to sign up to receive free rapid tests mailed to your home, as has been done in many other parts of the nation and world.

6. Offer strong guidance to the public about the importance of ventilation (e.g. opening windows and doors wherever possible), and provide HEPA filters to low-income families who have poorly ventilated homes.

7. Urge the federal gov’t to require vaccination and a negative test for all domestic flights.

8. Create multi-service FEMA centers at Javits, the Washington Heights Armory and other hubs in the five boroughs, to provide testing, vaccination, and connection to care for those who test positive (e.g. referrals for monoclonal antibodies)

9. Allow those City workers who can do their jobs from home the flexibility of a hybrid work schedule, at least during the omicron surge.

10. Institute a plan for weekly testing of all students & staff in DOE schools, whether vax'd or not. Require that parents opt-out if they don’t want their child tested. Offer regular on-site vaccination at all DOE elementary schools, with schedule set out in advance.

11. Establish a web portal for New Yorkers to register positive results from home self-test kits, helping the City collect better data and making it easier for those NYers to access supportive services.

12. Secure supply for NYC hospitals of Sotrovimab, the new formulation of monoclonal antibodies that work for omicron.

13. Double the number of mobile vaccination vans and deploy in neighborhoods with low rates of boosters

14. Dramatically expand staffing for the 212-COVID19 call center to reduce wait time for requesting supportive services to isolate at home or in a hotel.

15. Double the number of hotel rooms available in NYC’s covid isolation program

16. Shorten turn-around time for PCR results (now as much as 5-7 days at some sites), by among other things surging resources to NYC’s Pandemic Response Lab.

Coverage of our plan to push back against the omicron wave in NYC (via @ShantRS):
nydailynews.com/news/politics/…