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| AP |
Poor planning by New York State officials left disabled people “in harm’s way” when COVID-19 slammed group homes starting in 2020 to deadly effect, a report said.
“The Office for People With Developmental Disabilities did not issue timely, consistent guidance to the vast majority of their certified group homes,” state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said about a 43-page audit of the agency’s COVID-19 response released Thursday.
“Inconsistent emergency management coordination and oversight put residents, families and staff in harm’s way.”
A total of 657 people died from COVID-19 in facilities for the disabled overseen by the state agency between March 2020 and April 2022, with the majority happening in the first three months of the pandemic.
Agency leadership considered pandemics “as a risk” in their emergency plans before the virus arrived in New York — but the OPWDD nonetheless failed to make sure that nearly 7,000 facilities they regulate were fully prepared, according to the audit.
Just one out of 16 visited by DiNapoli’s staff had pandemic plans prior to the state of emergency declared in March 2020.
And once COVID-19 cases began popping up in group homes for the disabled, insufficient staffing and supplies of personal protective equipment like masks only made the situation worse, according to DiNapoli. --->READ MORE HERE
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| REUTERS |
Goldman Sachs strategists are predicting the most dismal earnings season since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic this quarter as an ongoing economic slowdown hammers top companies.
Analysts project that earnings per share results for companies listed in the broad-based S&P 500 will plunge by 7% in the first quarter compared to the same period one year ago, Goldman’s Lily Calcagnini and David Kostin said in a client note reported by Bloomberg on Thursday.
“If analyst projections are realized, this quarter will represent the trough in S&P 500 earnings growth,” the analysts said, adding that profit margins are likely to shrink given the tough conditions.
The latest round of corporate earnings will emerge as US companies weather concerns about the stability of the US banking sector and the Federal Reserve’s ongoing slate of interest rate hikes.
The Fed will hold its next policy meeting on May 2-3.
Investors will get their first round of major results on April 14, when BlackRock, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup are all slated to report their quarterly earnings.
The Goldman strategists pointed to several key trends that Wall Street will be tracking closely during the uncertain period, including signs of a slowdown in cash spending, company initiatives in the burgeoning artificial intelligence sector, China’s effort to re-emerge from COVID-19 lockdowns and profit margins at US firms. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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