COVID-19 cases spike
as winter approaches
HIGHER ED TODAY
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, N 4 OV. 19-25, 2021 BTR
BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
After a summer of progress against
COVID-19’s Delta variant strain, New
York City coronavirus cases are beginning
to climb back up again due to colder
temperatures, and city health offi cials
are urging vaccinated individuals to get
their COVID-19 booster shots, especially
if you were last vaccinated more than six
months ago.
The Bronx saw two consecutive 100-
case load days entering Tuesday. However,
local vaccination efforts in the borough
steadied, with roughly 71.6% of the
population receiving at one dose of the
vaccine, according to city health data.
The Bronx has the city’s second-fewest
vaccinated population per capita —
62.5% of Bronxites are fully vaccinated
— but has seen major success in central
Bronx sections like Parkchester and Morris
Park, the latter of which surpassed the
80% vaccination rate entering Tuesday.
Additionally, City Island and Riverdale
have also reported vaccination rates of
more than 75%.
Neighborhoods like the Bronx’s Wakefi
eld section where 69% of its residents
have received one dose of the vaccine, saw
a major spike in COVID cases this week,
reporting 13.3 cases per 100,000 residents.
The city’s uptick in coronavirus cases
coincides with colder weather with more
people staying indoors, Health Commissioner
Dr. David Chokshi said Monday.
He said waning immunity for people who
received their vaccines more than six
months ago could be to blame for the resurgence.
“We had anticipated that this might occur
as the weather gets cooler and people
spend more time indoors, but compared
to this time last year, we have many more
tools to fight COVID-19 and work to keep a
winter wave at bay,” he said.
Chokshi also announced that he’s issuing
a Commissioner’s Advisory to all
health care providers to ensure there are
no barriers for New Yorkers to get a COVID
19 booster shot if they are over 18 and
at least six months removed from their second
Pfizer or Moderna shot or two months
NYC health offi cials are urging vaccinated
residents to receive COVID-19 booster shots
as colder temperatures become more common
in NYC. File photo
since a Johnson & Johnson shot.
Despite 93% of New York City residents
getting inoculated through expanded federal
eligibility for vaccines, the local vaccine
mandates continue to wedge a divide
between NYC’s public health efforts and its
unvaccinated population.
In the Kingsbridge section on Monday,
100 people rallied against a bill in the New
York State Assembly, that would require
all children to get the COVID vaccine in
order to attend school. Gubernatorial candidate
Rob Astorino, a Republican, organized
the anti-vaccine mandate press conference
which saw Nazi imagery displayed
prominently on some protestors’ signs outside
the Bronx district office of Democratic
state Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who
is Jewish.
The Kingsbridge section has a sevenday
average of 7.6 cases per 100,000, entering
Tuesday.
In the Bronx, 289 out of 357 adult ICU
beds (81%) are filled, with only 14 occupied
by COVID patients.
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I never tire of hearing — or telling — CUNY
success stories. They are the stories of students
from all backgrounds and so many places, with
all kinds of experiences and aspirations. They’ve
worked hard to get to college, and many will be
the first in their family to earn a degree. They
are passionate and perseverant. And they benefit
from the many CUNY programs that support
their success, prepare them for careers and propel
them to achieve their ambitions and dreams.
The journey of Hunter College student
Montserrat Lopez is very much a story of CUNY
success. Monti, as she’s known, was 5 when she
arrived in Queens from Mexico with her family.
She grew up with dreams of college that she eventually
realized would be hard to achieve as an
undocumented immigrant. Most dauntingly, she
didn’t qualify for the federal financial aid that
most low-income students depend on to attend college.
But now, Monti is a senior political science
major with plans for law school and a passion for
immigrant labor advocacy fueled by the indignities
and abuses she’s seen her parents endure in
their restaurant jobs.
Monti is on the way to realizing her dreams
in good part because of the support and inspiration
she’s gotten at CUNY. Much of that support
has come from programs that are sustained by
the generosity of private donors who believe in
CUNY’s mission. Monti is a recipient of Hunter’s
Eva Kastan Grove Scholarship, which provides
tuition funding, mentorship and other support to
immigrant students and others in need who are
committed to public service and human rights.
And she’s found a strong sense of community as
a student scholar at Hunter’s renowned Roosevelt
House Public Policy Institute. “Having that many
people by my side means that I have a community
behind me,” Monti says. “To me, it’s a sign that
the college cares about its students, and it’s trying
its best to provide all the opportunities that it
can to its students.”
A Little Gift Goes a Long Way
November 30 is GivingTuesday, the annual
global campaign to inspire people to do good and
give well. Each year since 2016, we’ve designated
it CUNYTuesday, a day when our community and
our supporters — both longstanding donors and
new ones — come together to invest in our mission
to propel striving New Yorkers like Monti
Lopez to the middle class and beyond.
Giving to The City University of New York
helps sustain and grow the many innovative programs
and initiatives that make CUNY the nation’s
leading urban public university. It is vital
support in increasingly challenging times for
public higher education. This year, it’s an investment
in New York’s recovery from the pandemic.
The returns on that investment are tangible
— not only in the difference it makes in the lives
of students but also in the way their success helps
drive the city’s success. More than 80 percent of
CUNY graduates stay in New York and contribute
to all aspects of the city’s economic, civic and cultural
life. They diversify every sector of the city’s
workforce and make it more reflective of the city,
an impact that goes to the heart of our mission.
And here’s another powerful effect: CUNY
graduates from 1967 to 2019 earn $67 billion in a
single year — more than double what they would
have earned with only a high school diploma.
That’s $33.7 billion of value added each year to
the city’s economy. As the city’s economy starts
to move forward from the pandemic, CUNY graduates
become ever more important to the overall
health of the city.
CUNY’s community of more than 300,000 students,
faculty and staff have sacrificed, adapted
and persevered through the pandemic, and now
our 25 campuses are humming with life once
more. We’re forgiving millions of dollars of our
students’ debt and expanding our efforts to support
their well-being beyond the classroom. We’re
finding ways to help our faculty become the best
teachers they can be and we’re promoting diversity,
equity and inclusion with new approaches
that help us break down more barriers for our
students than ever before. Over the past decade,
the number of degrees we’ve awarded has soared:
from about 45,000 to this year’s record-breaking
59,000.
We are extremely grateful to the many donors,
large and small, whose generosity has
played a great role in all of these advances. Their
investment is supplementing our city and state
funding at a time of increasing financial stress
for all public higher education. Each year since
its inception five years ago, CUNYTuesday has
generated a greater degree of critical support for
our campuses and their students. In 2016, CUNYTuesday
raised $300,000. Last year — at the
height of the pandemic — it raised $2.7 million.
We hope to set yet another record this year.
By making a CUNYTuesday donation today
or on November 30, New Yorkers help us reimagine
a better and more equitable post-pandemic
CUNY, one in which students continue to achieve
their dreams and lead the New York City of the
future. To give, visit visit https://www.cunytuesday.
org/ and choose the college and even the program
you’d like to support.
Now more than ever, our city needs CUNY,
and CUNY needs you.
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