Yearly Archives: 2020

People Rally for Police in Port Jefferson Station

by Kyle Barr - June 23, 2020

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Annemarie Lopez holds a police pin for her brother Christie Masone, an officer who died in the line of duty June 22. Photo by Kyle Barr

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Crowds numbering in the several hundreds rallied at the corner of Route 112 and 347 in Port Jefferson Station June 22 calling for people to support police. It was a counterpoint to the over 100 protests all across Long Island calling for an end to police violence for the past several weeks.

People waved thin blue line flags and held signs supporting police reading “back the blue” and “respect and honor our law enforcement.”

The pro-police rally came three weeks after a protest against police violence in the same location, which some local progressive activists have called “resistance corner.” Some came with flags, signs or hats supporting President Donald Trump (R). Most people in the crowd at the June 22 rally were not wearing face masks, compared to other recent protests where the majority were wearing some kind of face covering.

Suffolk County Police officers stood at both sides of the protest line and entrance to the small park, and others milled about the crowd, with many people thanking them for their service. Most cars passing by honked in support, though there was a small number of counter protesters holding signs supporting Black Lives Matter on the other side of Route 347. Towards the start of the rally a woman pulled to the side of the road and got out of her car, cursing at the people standing on the sidewalk who responded with expletives of their own before a cop came by to tell her to get back in her car.

People at the rally said police have become disrespected since the start of the nationwide protests after the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd in police custody. Though they admitted what the police did in that situation was wrong, when one officer leaned his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes until EMTs arrived, they said most cops want to do good.

Annemarie Lopez, of Port Jefferson, said she was at the rally in remembrance of her brother, Christie Masone along with his partner Norman Cerullo who were shot and killed in the line of duty in 1978.

“There are good cops and bad cops, but these are people putting their lives on the line,” Lopez said.

Others said the calls for police budgets to be cut will ultimately make the Island less safe.

“Cops are being treated unfairly — this will be detrimental to our safety, we don’t need cuts to police,” said Maria Leonette, a nurse at Stony Brook University Hospital.

The Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association had a large presence, sporting a trailer which handed out water to people during the hot June afternoon.

PBA President Noel DiGerolamo saw it as an incredible turnout that showed a “humbling support for the men and women of law enforcement. The silent majority isn’t silent anymore.”

At the height of the rally, the crowds gathered under the trees in the center of the park to hear people speak, including former chairman of the Suffolk County Republican Party John Jay LaValle, who was introduced as a spokesperson for Trump.

One of the two main organizers for the rally, Jonathan Stuart of Manorville, said “I could not let the broad stroke of social justice, virtue signaling and cancel culture paint all the police in the shot of the heinous death of George Floyd,” adding, “Is every person who puts on their bullet proof vest, turn their radio on, holster their pistol, shine their badge and kiss their family goodbye a murderer? No. Racist? No.”

Police: Man Found Deceased in West Hills Woods near Huntington Public Park

by TBR Staff - June 22, 2020

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police-car-siren-lights-stock — Stock photo

The Suffolk County Police Department received a 911 call at approximately 7:20 a.m. June 22 regarding an adult man hanging in the woods in Peter A. Nelson Park on Oakwood Road in West Hills.

According to SCPD, the death is being preliminarily classified as a non-criminal suicide based on evidence at the scene and at the male’s residence which includes a letter to his family with his reasons for his actions.

An autopsy will be performed by the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner, and the family has requested that their identity, as well as the identity of the deceased, be withheld to protect their privacy.

“As a matter of policy, the Suffolk County Police Department does not normally comment on non-criminal death investigations,” a statement read. “The department investigates approximately 100 suicides annually. However, we are aware of unfortunate rumors circulating on social media and throughout the community regarding this investigation, and believe that it is in the public’s interest to issue this statement to allay any fears and quell rumors with facts.”

News of the man found hanging in Huntington spread through social media. There has been a rash of black men found hanging from trees in multiple states including California, Georgia, Oregon, Texas and New York just within the past few weeks. Police and other authorities have named all of those cases suicides, but members of the Black community have largely been skeptical, noting the long history of lynchings in America.

This post will be updated if more information becomes available.

Bellone Freezes Raises for County Management Through 2021

by Daniel Dunaief - June 22, 2020

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Bellone-state-of-county-052418-petroskiw — Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. File photo by Alex Petroski

In response to the ongoing need to close a revenue shortfall caused by the economic lockdown during the pandemic, County Executive Steve Bellone (D) is signing an order today freezing all steps and raises for management and exempt employees through 2021.

“It’s important that we move forward in a way that we’re doing the lowest-hanging fruit possible,” Bellone said on his daily conference call with reporters.

The move will save the county an estimated $3.4 million and is a part of an ongoing effort to prepare for a budget shortfall in the next three months that could be as high as $829 million.

“We are analyzing additional cuts in our department right now,” Bellone said. “In light of the catastrophic budget numbers we are talking about, it’s important that we make clear we are willing to take these steps.”

Bellone reiterated his call for the federal government to provide $1 billion in relief to Suffolk County, which stood at the epicenter of the pandemic and which shut down its businesses in response to guidelines from the federal government. Bellone urged the national government to provide financial support that would also support infrastructure projects as well as small businesses.

“I’ve been in public life for more than 20 years,” Bellone said, and the federal government has been talking about making a major investment in infrastructure projects. “That hasn’t happened. Now is the time,” as low interest rates will reduce the cost of those funds while also supporting the restart of an economy crippled by the virus.

Bellone is hopeful that the federal government will consider his request for financial support for Suffolk County in July. Bellone said the county sends to Washington billions more than it receives each year. This year, amid the pandemic, he urged the federal government to recognize the natural disaster that has devastated the region and urges the federal government to step in to prevent the county from hollowing out the vital services that responded to this crisis.

Viral Numbers

After a one-day slight increase in positive testing for the virus on Sunday, the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 rose by a smaller number through Monday. The number of new positive tests was 38, bringing the total for the county since testing began to 41,010.

The positive tests were below 1 percent of overall tests, which is a decline from the 1.2 percent on Sunday.

The number of people hospitalized declined by eight to 90. The number of people in Intensive Care Unit beds increased by six to 27.

An additional 17 people were discharged from the hospital in the 24 hour period ending on June 20.

For the fourth day in a row, one person died from complications related to the coronavirus. The death toll in Suffolk County is 1,965.

Bellone remains confident that the data will stay within a safe range through the summer.

“The numbers will remain good, largely because people will remain outdoors,” he said.

The fall, however, brings additional challenges, as students may return to school and people may return to more indoor activities, which could lead to a spike or a second wave.

He encourages residents to keep social distancing where they can, make sure they wear face coverings when they are in close proximity to others and to stay home if they are not feeling well.

With refinements in contact tracing, he is also confident that the county will be successful in keeping the economy open, operating and recovering.

Artist of the Month: Gabriella Grama

by Irene Ruddock - June 21, 2020

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‘Mosaics are spellbinding; they bring forth a story by constructing together a thousand little pieces, just like life is created from thousands of moments, memories, and experiences.’

– Gabriella Grama

By Irene Ruddock

Gabriella Grama is an artist who specializes in fine art mosaics and whose artistic form of expression is a fusion of modern and traditional methods. Born in Romania, she has lived in Ronkonkoma for the past 25 years where she maintains her art studio. She has exhibited in many art galleries and shows on Long Island, mainly with the Women Sharing Art group, whose most recent exhibit was at the Islip Art Museum. Gabriella also enjoys commissions where she can do a special project for someone.

How did you begin your love of art?

As a young girl, I used to visit my grandfather who was a glassmaker in Transylvania, an area well-known for skilled craftsmanship in glass, wood, and pottery. The magical experience of seeing light filtered through colored glass ignited my life-long love for glass as an art form.

When did you begin your interest in mosaics?

I was a stained glass artist for ten years before I discovered mosaics. While remodeling my kitchen, I decided to try a mosaic backsplash, and, before it was completed, I was hooked with a new passion! To improve, to learn about the different types of materials, work methods, and tools, I started to study with mosaic masters both in the United States and Italy. Each year I take workshops in Venice, Ravenna, the Chicago School of Mosaics or continue my study with mosaic masters such as Carol Shelkin, Martin Cheek, Koko Mosaico, Carole Choucair Oueijan, etc.

How would you describe the art of mosaics?

Mosaics are assemblages composed of tesserae which are small pieces of glass, stone, or other nature-based materials. These pieces are typically cut into squares or shaped using special tools. The fragments are then arranged into patterns, pictures and other decorative designs held together by an adhesive and then grouted.

What is the history of mosaics?

Mosaics have a long history. First made out of ivory, seashells, and stones, they have been around since the third millennium B.C.E. Later on, mosaics with patterns, motifs, animal and human pictures were quite widespread in Ancient Greece and Rome.

What places have you visited that have inspired you to create mosaics?

When I travel, I not only enjoy the different places, people and culture, but also seek out the mosaic treasures that inspire and educate me. Mosaic artists usually take the beaten path to Italy to visit Pompeii and Ravenna or travel to Barcelona, Spain or Istanbul, Turkey. But one could also travel to Vietnam to visit the Imperial Tombs outside of the city of Hue or visit the outstanding modern subway mosaics in Pyongyang, North Korea which I saw while on a cultural exchange.

You mentioned that you were most inspired by your visit to Pompeii. What was it about this ancient city that pulled you into this art form?

Mosaic ornamentation was widely used in the decoration of the houses in Pompeii and the workmanship was very skilled. The Pompeii mosaics are technically brilliant, showing refinement in their composition, great taste in color and superb selection of the tesserae used.

“Cave Canem,” The Battle of Alexander,” or the maritime scene of fish swimming around an octopus wrestling with a lobster are just some of the mosaics that are constantly brought forward in time, ceaselessly reproduced, and instantly recognizable.

Can you tell me about the organization Women Sharing Art and why it is so important to you?

I am thrilled to be a part of this group of Long Island women artists who work in a variety of media: photography, watercolors, ceramics, pottery, etc. Since 2008, the organization has offered grants to its members, awarded scholarships to high school artists, while providing its members with numerous opportunities to participate in Long Island art exhibits. You may view my work and the work of all of our members at womensharingart.org.

What was the theme of your most recent exhibit with the group?

In February, we participated in the “I AM at the IAM” at the Islip Museum of Art in an exhibition celebrating the 100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing the right of American woman to vote. A video of the exhibition can be viewed on You Tube: “I Am at the IAM.” Another way to see it is on a film posted on the Islip Art Museum Face Book page. (www.facebook.com/IslipArtMuseum/videos)

What was your experience working with Mercy Center Ministries?

This is an independent living shelter for runaway or homeless teens. Artists from Women Sharing Art, community members, staff and residents created Mercy Has a Thousand Hearts, a unique mosaic that was installed in the Sayville Shelter. Funded by a grant received from New York State Council on the Arts and the Huntington Arts Council, the mosaic was a true work of love that gave hundreds of people the opportunity to try this form of art to express their creativity.

Is there another memorable project that has brought you fulfillment?

I am most proud of collaborating in 2019 with a fellow Long Island mosaic artist on the concept and design of a mosaic sidewalk medallion in Patchogue. “Nautilus Flowing” celebrates the diversity of Patchogue, its people and communities.

Tell me about your favorite piece?

One of my favorite pieces is “Effervescence”, a mosaic of a woman submerged just below the water surface. I wanted to bring to the viewer a woman experiencing a moment of solitude, serenity, and sublimity.

What are you working on now?

While I usually work on mosaic portraits (pet and human) or kitchen backsplashes, I am also experimenting with a dynamic, less traditional take on mosaics: I want to incorporate the look of weaved texture, cloth, in my mosaics. The mosaic pillows I made for a recent show inspired me to venture into a new direction. I am having a lot of fun breaking all sorts of ancient rules used in traditional mosaics!

Are you interested in teaching? How may someone get in touch with you?

Mosasics can be for everyone so all levels are invited to try it out. I currently conduct small group workshops at my studio. My contact information is [email protected], GabriellaGramaMosaics.com, womensharingart.org or Facebook: Gabriella Grama Mosaic Art.

Making Democracy Work: Challenges for voters in 2020

by Lisa Scott - June 21, 2020

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By Lisa Scott

COVID-19. Economic Meltdown. Social Justice Demonstrations. BlackLivesMatter. Shutdowns. Social Distancing. Active Military in our Cities. Misinformation. Local Budget Meltdowns. Post Office Survival. Malign Foreign Influences. Interruption of Census Reporting. Voter Suppression. And just this week, Voting Chaos exemplified in Georgia. Shall we continue listing 2020’s norm-shattering events and trends? Or do we instead renew our commitment to making American democracy work in this all-important election year?

As New York State voters, we’ve been through the worst of the pandemic, and yet also are experiencing an extraordinary amount of communication and action from our governor, Andrew Cuomo. The flurry of executive orders, daily briefings and critiques seem overwhelming, yet in a time of irresponsible misinformation it is vital for all our citizens to be spoken to as responsible and intelligent adults.

This far 2020 has been a “voting year” for the record book in New York. Starting in mid-March, village elections were postponed, special elections were delayed, a presidential primary was postponed, school board and budget elections were delayed, the presidential primary was rescheduled, cancelled, reinstated by the courts and now will be held several days after Mr. Biden has clinched the Democratic presidential nomination. Congressional and New York State Senate and Assembly primaries will be held as scheduled, but the special elections (to fill vacant lawmaker seats) will now have to wait until the November general election.

For the first time ever, the governor has ordered school districts to mail absentee ballots to every eligible voter in New York State, and to cancel all in-person voting. This presented huge challenges, and individual districts performed as best they could … but clearly need more lead time, transparency, money and much improved communication.

From very low voter turnout in all past years, school districts in 2020 expect huge numbers of ballots to be returned, and worry about voters rejecting budgets because this is one of the few ways voters can directly comment on their economic distress. But remember, school, village and special district elections are not covered by the same election law rules as what we consider primary or general elections run by county boards of election.

By 9 p.m. on June 23, voters will have cast votes in the Presidential, Congressional, NYS Senate and NYS Assembly primaries. A vast number of those votes will have been done via absentee ballots, forcing boards of elections to purchase new high-speed absentee ballot counters and incur significant costs for prepaid/postage to apply for and mail the ballot. (Absentee ballots must be postmarked by June 23 to be counted.)

There will be early voting sites open from June 13 to 21 with varying hours for those who wish to vote in person, and the usual 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. hours on election day itself — Tuesday, June 23. If a person had received an absentee ballot but decided instead to vote in person, the Board of Elections counts the in-person voting first, and when the absentee ballot from the same voter is recorded, it will not be considered a valid vote and put aside.

How will you know who is on your ballot in 2020, and what each candidate stands for? The League of Women Voter’s ballot information website, VOTE411.org, should be your go-to site. Information is usually available about four weeks before a primary or general election. LWV candidate debates are still being held, albeit virtually via Zoom and available on YouTube.

Our LWVUS CEO, Virginia Kase, recently wrote from Washington, D.C. …

“If you are like me, you might have commented from time to time that 2020 feels like the worst year ever. It’s been rough. Many of us are just entering Phase 1 of our states’ reopening plans. We’ve seen challenges to our democracy, a global pandemic, and more black lives lost because of the color of their skin. It’s hard not to feel hopeless. But what if 2020 is actually a turning point?

Yes, America is going through some very difficult labor pains right now, but I believe that our democracy can be reborn. I believe that now, more than ever, we have the power to change our country and our society for the better. Right now, there is an awakening the likes of which I’ve never seen in my life, and I am, for the first time in a long time, hopeful.

Being democracy defenders means standing up to injustice with all our power: the power of our voices, the power of our resources, and the power of our votes. That is how we continue the push for a more perfect democracy.”

Lisa Scott is president of the League of Women Voters of Suffolk County, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government and influences public policy through education and advocacy. For more information, visit http://www.lwv-suffolkcounty.org, email [email protected] or call 631-862-6860.

CSHL’s Saket Navlakha moves beyond common scents with computers

by Daniel Dunaief - June 21, 2020

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CHSL Saket Navlakha — Saket Navlakha. Photo from CSHL

By Daniel Dunaief

When people walk into their own home, they immediately ignore sensory cues around them. They may not notice the picture of their children on the wall, the lush leaves of the ficus plant, or the constant smell of soup that greets them when they return from work.

Similarly, animals and even flies become accustomed to cues in their environment, habituating to them so they can focus on more important signals, like the smell of nearby food or the appearance of a fly swatter.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Associate Professor Saket Navlakha and his post doctoral researcher Yang Shen recently studied the way flies subtract smells from the environment, giving them the opportunity to focus instead on odors that might be more important to their lives.

In a paper last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Navlakha and Shen converted the way flies use a signal filtering process to create a computer algorithm.

Navlakha explained that the tandem were using computer science to understand better a basic biological phenomenon of habituation and how it happens. “We’ve been studying background subtraction,” he said in a recent interview.

One of the applications for their work is in electronic noses. Hotels and even military departments may in the not too distant future use these systems to process odors to determine what’s in the environment.

These electronic noses detect faint signals within noisy backgrounds. Habituation enables them to remove from consideration those scents that would otherwise distract from the goal of scanning the environment for new information.

Navlakha suggested that humans, who are often a visually dominant species, are not always the best species at using a sense of smell to perceive the environment.

Saket Navlaka with his wife Sejal Morjaria, during a run in Port Washington in mid-May. Photo by Lawrence Lau

“Many other species rely on their noses as much as we rely on vision,” he said. “We don’t always have an intuitive sense of what is possible in the olfactory space. Sometimes, that limits our imagination.”

While Navlakha is not crafting sensors that can detect compounds, he is working on the computer science analogs to odor recognition and discrimination. He is exploring the kind of data analysis that would have applications in a range of fields.

In one example, he said a sensor in an airport might be surrounded by a symphony of smells, including new pungent or even subtle toppings on pizza or even a new cologne from someone working in a watch repair store.

The sensor might need to sift through all that data to find someone who is transferring a toxic chemical through an airport, the scent of which might be faint and almost insignificant compared with the other odors spreading through the terminal.

In a more everyday example, a sensor in the refrigerator might detect the subtle changes in odors emitted by foods that are starting to become inedible, such as an onion or cream cheese.

“You want to detect” when food is starting to turn so you can “eat it and use it” before it becomes inedible, Navlakha said. “These are the kind of problems we are exploring on the data analysis side.”

Navlakha specifically looked at the activity of Kenyon cells, which are special odor neurons. When a fly receives a new scent, about five percent of these cells turn on, developing a unique activity tag.

Once the fly becomes habituated to a smell that isn’t relevant for its survival — either to indicate the presence of food or to announce the arrival of a predator — Navlakha believes the number of Kenyon cells that make up the tag for the odor declines. While this is his theory, he said more work needs to be done to confirm these predictions.

A new odor repeats the process, bringing the fly’s attention to a new smell. The fly brain in principal can reverse the subtraction process for habituated odors if the odor becomes more rare or important for the fly’s survival. Researchers need to conduct more work to confirm this as well.

Navlakha hopes to frame the fluid process of recognizing, habituating and bolstering the signal for odors to understand how the brain is functioning.

He said the fly brain responds to smells based on two mechanisms. In the first, the fly has an innate, evolutionary behavior. In the second, the fly learns through experience. Navlakha studied the learned behaviors.

The next steps involve pushing more on the experimental front, determining the limits of odor discrimination and looking at the role of habituation.

He hopes to extend an experiment that others have done with people. Experimenters took three odors that were all relatively similar that come from three flowers. Most people could not discriminate between two out of the three odors. In an experimental group, they allowed people to habituate to one of three smells and then they had to discriminate between the other two. By subtracting out the common part of all three smells, they were more successful at decoding the difference between the others.

“We want to see if we can do this in fruit flies” while recording from a region of the fly brain called the mushroom body.

Navlakha also bought an electronic nose. Using this artificial system, he wants to test odor discrimination algorithms.

“One thing this would allow us to do is to test and validate these algorithms to see how well they perform,” he explained. “There are all kinds of tests to see what kind of power these sensors have.”

In the PNAS paper, Navlakha mostly used the literature for their biological inspiration. They discussed numerous parts of the paper with biological collaborators and including biological experiments. They did not introduce any new biological data.

He came across this literature about 18 months ago.

“We thought it was interesting because we could understand the whole series of transformations when a fly smells,” he said. He worked on how to understand the process from input to output.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, he has been spending considerably more time doing theoretical work and modeling. He and his wife Sejal Morjaria have also gotten out of the house to do some running.

As for his work, Navlakha is hoping to build on what he’s done so far and expects he will, if you’ll pardon the pun, follow his nose as the research progresses.

Gurwin Jewish health care heroes recognized

by TBR Staff - June 21, 2020

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Assisted Living Staff Lunch — Sue and Rob Seiler (far right, back row by tree) poses with members of Gurwin assisted living staff as they receive their meals from Dix Hills Diner. Photo courtesy of Gurwin Jewish

Commack: Gurwin Jewish~Fay J. Lindner Residences staff, like employees at all senior living facilities, have been on the frontline of the battle during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, a group of local community members took note and decided to treat the health care heroes at Gurwin’s assisted living facility to a pleasant and delicious surprise.

Resident family members Sue and Rob Seiler of Huntington joined with other family members to create a GoFundMe, with the goal of showing their appreciation for the dedicated Gurwin staff. After raising almost $1500, they partnered with Dix Hills Diner owners Michael Akapnitis and Peter Giannitsas to provide a delicious lunch for employees.

Seiler describes the food drop off as a win/win, showing appreciation to Gurwin staff members while giving a financial boost to the diner, also impacted by the pandemic. She says she and the others were inspired by the donations they were seeing larger healthcare facilities receive.

“This place might be smaller than some hospitals and healthcare chains, but it’s big to me,” Seiler said about Lindner Residences, a 201- apartment community where her mom has lived since 2016.

The effort provided nearly 100 meals for the staff. “Each and every one of our staff members are heroes, coming to work every day to take care of our residents despite the multitude of personal and family challenges they faced,” said Michael Letter, Administrator/COO of the Fay J. Lindner Residences. “We want to thank Sue, Rob, and the entire group for their generosity and thoughtfulness.”

King Kullen/Stop & Shop acquisition deal squashed

by Heidi Sutton - June 21, 2020

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KingKullen_PhilCorsow — The King Kullen in St. James. File photo by Phil Corso

Stop & Shop’s long-pending acquisition of King Kullen is no more. The announcement was made on June 10.

The two chains, along with Stop & Shop parent Ahold Delhaize USA, said they have mutually decided to terminate the deal because of “significant, unforeseen changes in the marketplace that have emerged since the agreement was signed in December 2018, largely driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“Both companies have put forth an incredible amount of effort to work through unanticipated challenges that have arisen, and we regret that we’re not able to move forward,” Stop & Shop President Gordon Reid said in a statement.

“King Kullen has a strong legacy on the island, and we wish them continued success. Stop & Shop remains committed to the Long Island community, to serving our customers in the market well, and to investing in our associates and our stores in Nassau and Suffolk counties,” he said.

At the time of the acquisition deal, there were 32 King Kullen supermarkets, but three underperforming locations were closed last year including Mount Sinai on June 20 and Ronkonkoma on Aug. 22. The remaining supermarkets include St. James, Huntington, Wading River, Middle Island and Manorville. The company also has five Wild by Nature stores on Long Island including Setauket and Huntington.

“We look forward to continuing to focus on what we do best: serving our great customers across Long Island and supporting our hard-working store associates,” said Brian Cullen, co-president of King Kullen. “We are enthusiastic about the future and well-positioned to serve Nassau and Suffolk counties for many years to come. In short, we are here for the long term.”

Suffolk Hospitalizations Fall Below 100 for First Time Since March 22

by Daniel Dunaief - June 21, 2020

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On Father’s Day, which also coincides with the start of summer, County Executive Steve Bellone (D) exuded optimism about the ongoing recovery from COVID-19, which created tremendous strain on the health care system and led to a lockdown that crippled the economy amid shuttered businesses.

“I’m happy to report for the first time since March 22 that we are below 100 people hospitalized with COVID-19,” Bellone said on his daily conference call with reporters. “That is a real milestone for us.”

Indeed, the number of people hospitalized fell by eight to 98 through the 24 hours ending on June 19. At the same time, the number of people in Intensive Care Unit beds has declined by 10 to 21.

“We have gone up this mountain, we have seen this surge occur, we have come down on the other side,” Bellone said. “As we begin summer now, we are in a far, far different place than we were.”

An additional 10 people were discharged from the hospital over the last day.

The number of people who tested positive for the virus was higher than in recent days, with 64 people testing positive for the coronavirus. That number had been tracking in the 40s. The percentage of positive tests rose above one percent, climbing to 1.2 percent.

While this remains a closely watched number, Bellone said he wasn’t particularly concerned about an increase of that size on a single day.

The number of people who have the antibody to the virus stands at 18,021.

For the third day in a row, one person died from complications related to the coronavirus. The total number who have died in Suffolk County since the pandemic began is 1,964.

Amid a report in the New York Times that contact tracers in New York City have only received information from 35 percent of people who tested positive for the virus about their interactions prior to their positive test, Bellone said he remains focused on the fall for any potential resurgence in the virus.

“Right now, we do have this opportunity to really hone and get down everything we need with contact tracing,” Bellone said. The focus is on getting the system right and ensuring that it works “better and better every day.”

He anticipates the contact tracing effort will include tweaks over the next few months.

SC Moves Towards Phase Three Reopening this Wednesday

by Daniel Dunaief - June 20, 2020

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Even as public health information in other areas of the country are climbing at alarming rates, threatening to create a strain on health care on other health care systems that is all too familiar to Long Islanders, the COVID-19-related numbers have remained low enough to keep Suffolk County on track for a Phase Three reopening this Wednesday.

Phase Three will allow for indoor dining at restaurants, for groups of about 30 to convene and for more personal care businesses, like massage parlors and spas, to reopen with limitations on capacity, occupancy and services.

The number of people who have tested positive for the coronavirus was 44, which brings the total to 40,908. The percentage of people testing positive was at 1 percent.

The number of people who have tested positive for the antibody is 17,833.

The number of people afflicted with COVID-19 in the hospital fell by four to 106. The number of people in the Intensive Care Unit increased by two to 31.

For the second day in a row, one person died from complications related to COVID-19, bringing the total to 1,963.

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