Frustrated with large crowds congregating outside restaurants and bars in Manhattan and the Hamptons, New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) warned that these areas could face greater restrictions while businesses could be fined or could lose their state-approved liquor licenses.
People have made over 25,000 complaints to the state about a lack of social distancing and limited face coverings in Manhattan and the Hamptons.
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said he hadn’t heard of any increase in reports of noncompliance in the Hamptons and emphasized the different states of reopening between the two regions.
“The Hamptons are in a little bit of a different situation than Manhattan,” Bellone said on his daily conference call with reporters. “We are in Phase,” in which restaurants can offer outdoor dining, while Manhattan just entered the first phase of reopening, which doesn’t include such outdoor dining accommodations.
The Suffolk County Police Department has been educating businesses that weren’t open before throughout the area about the rules they have to follow.
“Businesses are happy to reopen and they want to follow the rules,” Suffolk County Police Chief Stuart Cameron said on the call. “They don’t want the rollback, either. We are working collaboratively and will be in touch with East End chiefs” to assist them in ensuring any compliance.
Bellone reiterated that he is “confident we have been doing compliance and enforcement from the beginning.”
The numbers related to COVID-19 for Suffolk County continue to remain positive.
Over the last day, 44 people have tested positive for the virus, bringing the total to 4,243. Those numbers continue to hover on a daily basis below the targeted 100 for the county.
While he continues to monitor the number of daily positive results closely, Bellone said he believes that the protests didn’t cause a spread of the virus if the new infections remain at this level through the middle of the week.
Being outside and wearing face coverings helps reduce the transmission of the virus.
Meanwhile, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 remained the same through the day ending on June 12 at 125. The number of people in Intensive Care Unit beds rose by one to 40.
Hospital bed capacity remains below targets. An additional 16 people were discharged from the hospital in the last day.
The number of people who died from complications related to the virus increased by one to 1,948.
Protesters rallied in Rocky Point Friday, June 12 in calling for an end to police brutality, and even to a complete restructuring of law enforcement. Photo by Kyle Barr
As the days pass between near daily protests related to the killing of Minneapolis resident George Floyd by a former police officer charged with his murder, the number of positive tests for COVID-19 remains at low levels.
In the last day, the number of positive tests was 56 as the county tested 5,879 people for a 1 percent rate for positive tests.
“My guess is that you’re not going to see a spike [in positive tests for the virus] as a result of the lack of social distancing in protests,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on his daily conference call with reporters. “I do believe if you have those face coverings on outdoors, that is very safe.”
After the county entered Phase Two of its reopening this past Wednesday, Bellone hopes to expedite the process of moving to Phase Three.
“We thought the most relevant comparison would be to communities upstate where there are dense populations around the cities, to see whether they had impacts in Phase TWo and compare those and provide that information,” Bellone said. Based on what he has seen from the numbers in other areas, he doesn’t see any cautionary signs elsewhere.
As for the viral numbers in the county, Bellone said they continue to move in a favorable direction.
The number of people in the hospital with COVID-19 declined by nine in the day ending on June 11, bringing the total to 125. The number of people in the Intensive Care Unit also declined, with two people leaving the ICU, bringing that total to 39.
Bed capacity remains comfortably below targeted levels, with 65 percent of hospital beds occupied and 55 percent of ICU beds occupied, both of which are below the 70 percent target.
An additional 18 people were discharged from the hospital in the last day.
Meanwhile, the number of people killed by complications related to COVID-19 increased by 2 to 1,947. This follows a day in which the number of people who died from complications related to the virus was zero for the first time since mid March.
Meanwhile, the county will continue to maintain a field hospital built by the U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers at Stony Brook University in the event that a second wave hits in the fall. If such an increase in viral cases hits Long Island at the same time as a difficult flu season, that could have a “devastating” impact on the health of the residents and the economy, Bellone said.
The county has not had to use that field hospital yet. If that facility, however, becomes necessary in the fall and into the winter, the county will add any necessary winterizing capacity.
Bellone continued to urge the federal government to help local governments, like Suffolk County, as they deal with the economic fallout from the virus. Bellone cited a municipal finance team’s report that estimated an economic hole that could be between $1.1 billion and $1.5 billion.
“We know we are in a recession right now,” Bellone said. “The numbers are cataclysmic in their impacts on local governments.”
Public health, public safety, and social services will all be “critical” in the days and months ahead, which will put tremendous strain on a county budget that depends on sales taxes that completely dried up after the county followed federal guidelines and shut down businesses to save lives and contain the spread of the virus.
“The good news is that our federal representatives are fighting for us in Washington to make sure the national government has done what it has always done throughout our history in times of need,” Bellone said.
The county executive said Long Island sends billions more to Washington than it receives each year, which increases the importance of helping Long Island’s economy recover.
Chris Friedl, of Backwoods Landscaping and a Comsewogue High School graduate, plants sunflowers for Comsewogue’s graduating seniors. Photo by Andrew Harris
Comsewogue school district is trying to leave its seniors with a little bit more than a diploma for all those who saw their last high school year cut short.
Assistant Superintendent Joe Coniglione and Superintendent Jennifer Quinn look at the sprouts of sunflowers in Jackie’s Garden. Photo by Andrew Harris
The district has planted hundreds of sunflowers in the high school courtyard, known as Jackie’s Garden after the late wife of former Superintendent Dr. Joe Rella, who in February also passed away.
The seeds number over 320, and should bloom into massive golden yellow flowers by the fall.
The plantings came together thanks to Chris Friedl, 26, from Backwoods Landscaping. A 2012 Comsewogue graduate, he said he was very empathetic to the 2020 graduating class who were missing out on so much as a normal senior year.
“It sucks, there’s no other way to put it,” Friedl said. “Going through all they’re going through with all this adversity, it’s incredible.”
Andrew Harris, a special education teacher in the district, said he floated the idea to district officials earlier this year. Friedl jumped at the chance to help. He was also the person who donated material for Jackie’s Garden several years ago. He has come back now and again to provide small upkeep to the flower boxes.
After clearing and cleaning the empty planting boxes, the district hosted a ceremony May 16 where students’ names were read as the landscaper planted the seeds.
Friedl asked if he could plant a seed for Joe and Jackie Rella. Though the garden was meant for students, Harris told him he could.
“He always remembered my name out of thousands of students,” Friedl said of Rella. “Nobody had a bad word to say about him or Jackie, which just says miles about the kind of people they were.”
A day and a half after they were planted, Harris said he came back to the garden. There, growing in the earth, he thought he saw weeds. Normally sunflowers take five to 10 days before one sees them start to sprout, but the two seeds planted for the Rellas were indeed springing from the earth.
“The hair on the back of my neck started to stand up,” Harris said. “I remembered how when I told Dr. Rella about this particular butterfly that kept coming back to our garden, even though we never had any butterflies before. He told me in his gruff Brooklyn-accented voice, ‘Andy, I believe with every fiber in my body that that is a sign from Jackie.’ I looked at the new sunflower sprout and had no doubt about what it meant.”
Official info on Comsewogue graduations is still to be determined, though students were delivered their caps and gowns this week.
Friedl offered some advice to seniors.
“Stay strong, the entire community is behind you, and keep your path,” he said. “The community really wants you to succeed.”
Many Illnesses Carried by Ticks Share Symptoms with COVID-19
A deer tick is a common type of tick on Long Island. Stock photo
With summer close by and as New York State continues to relax shutdown restrictions, residents will naturally want to get some fresh air. But while open spaces like parks and nature preserves provide a temporary reprieve from the COVID-19 pandemic, they are also home to ticks. These arachnids can carry Lyme disease and other serious tick-borne illnesses. Experts say this is the time when ticks are most active and when their numbers increase.
“We have already passed a month of tick activity here on Long Island,” said Jorge Benach, distinguished Toll professor of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology and Pathology at the Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University. “With minimal contact because people were staying indoors due to the pandemic, we have seen less cases.”
Benach said that could change in the coming summer months, especially with an already large tick count this year. Currently, we are entering the second phase of tick season, which is when the arachnids are in the nymph stage and are harder to spot.
“For some reason Long Island has a heavy population of ticks,” Benach said. “It has the perfect environment for them and they really thrive.”
Three species of ticks call Long Island home. The deer tick can carry Lyme disease, anaplasmosis and other illnesses, while American dog tick can carry Rocky Mountain spotted fever. The lone star tick can transmit tularemia and ehrlichiosis.
“The lone star tick, we believe, is the most aggressive of the three species, and we didn’t know it existed until 1980,” the distinguished professor said. “And then it somehow found its way to Long Island.”
A 2019 study, headed by Benach and Rafal Tokarz, assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, with co-authors from SBU and Columbia, found prevalence of multiple agents capable of causing human disease that are present in three species of ticks in Long Island.
Another concern this season is that tick-borne illnesses like Lyme disease and anaplasmosis have symptoms that overlap with those of COVID-19, including fever, muscle aches and respiratory failure, but without persistent coughing.
“It is true that they have overlap in the initial symptoms, but once you get past that first stage it should be easier to diagnose if that person has a tick-borne illness,” Benach said.
Tick-borne diseases are usually treated with antibiotics. The effects range from mild symptoms that can be treated at home to severe infections that if left untreated can lead to death in rare cases.
The distinguished professor stressed the need for people to be aware of ticks when they are in certain areas outdoors.
Repellents and wearing long-sleeve pants and shirts can be good deterrents for ticks. Other tips include walking along the center of trails, washing and drying clothing when you come home and keeping pets from areas that could be tick infested.
Benach said there is a misconception that humans get ticks from dogs. Instead, it is more likely one gets a tick from being in the same space as your dog.
“You should be checking yourself, and if you spot a tick get it off as soon as possible,” he said. “If you develop any symptoms or illness contact your doctor.”
District Attorney Tim Sini (D). File photo by Victoria Espinoza
A Mount Sinai man was arrested and indicted Friday, June 12 for allegedly perpetuating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded over $500,000 from investors, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office said.
District Attorney Tim Sini (D) said in a release that Craig L. Clavin, 61 of Mount Sinai, with his company Lighthouse Futures Ltd. allegedly solicited investments into an investment fund called the Lighthouse Futures Commodity Pool, managed by the company, which would participate in the commodities market. The D.A. said he would then allegedly promise investors the guaranteed return of their investment in full by the end of each year with an option to roll the funds over into the next year.
“As with any Ponzi scheme, this was a scam built on greed and deceit,” District Attorney Sini said. “The defendant bilked his own friends and associates out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, promising to turn their hard-earned savings into solid investments. Instead he used some of their money to further the scheme, and used the rest to line his own pockets.”
The D.A. also alleged that between 2012 and 2017, Clavin received in excess of $500,000 dollars from investors for the purpose of investing the funds into commodities. Clavin allegedly misappropriated the majority of those funds for his personal and unrelated business use, including making payments on his credit cards, student loans, insurance and everyday expenses. Clavin then allegedly concealed his theft by fabricating documents and otherwise representing to the investors that they were earning “dividends” and profits on their investments. At least between 2013 and 2016, Clavin allegedly used money from investors to pay back the funds to other investors, misrepresenting that the funds were “returns” on their investments.
Anthony La Pinta, of the Hauppauge-based Reynolds, Caronia, Gianelli & La Pinta P.C., is representing Clavin.
“Mr. Clavin is a well respected and admired member of the community,” the attorney said. “We have undertaken our own investigation into these allegations.”
The indictment comes after a D.A.-led investigation that ran in conjunction with U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the National Futures Association investigations, according to the D.A. release.
The parallel investigation by the CFTC resulted in an action to sue Clavin and Lighthouse that was filed yesterday in United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Clavin was issued a summons on that case Thursday, June 11.
Clavin was arraigned yesterday by Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro and was released. He is due back in court June 29.
Clavin has been previously named in a past TBR News Media article as an owner of Billie’s 1890 Saloon in Port Jefferson. The building is now owned by the Phillips family, the original owners of the bar and grill.
The case is being prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Yana G. Knutson, of the Financial Investigations & Money Laundering Bureau.
Sini urged anyone who believes he or she is a victim of this scheme to call the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office’s Financial Investigations & Money Laundering Bureau at 631-853-4232.
In a milestone indicative of how deadly and prolonged the toll of the virus has been, Suffolk County reported the first day without a death from COVID-19 since March 16.
“I’m finally able to say that no one in Suffolk County in the last 24 hours has died from COVID-19,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on his daily conference call with reporters. “That’s a great place to be.”
While Bellone said the county, which entered Phase Two of its reopening Wednesday, June 10, still has a ways to go before it controls the spread of a virus that has claimed the lives of 1,945 people in the county, the day without a death from the pandemic is a “milestone.”
With many other states, including Texas and North Carolina, are experiencing a surge in the number of people diagnosed with the virus and being admitted to hospitals for their care, Suffolk County continues to experience a decline in the number of residents testing positive.
Indeed, in the last day, despite protests over the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd at the hands of a former police officer charged with murder, the number of people who tested positive in the county only increased by 47, raising the total to 40,559.
Bellone attributed the current condition on Long Island to the pain, uncertainty and suffering that rocked Long Island, which was the epicenter of the pandemic in the country.
“Because of the experience we’ve gone through, overwhelmingly, people are taking precautions,” Bellone said. “They are still listening to the guidance. Even at protests, even at demonstrations, I have seen people wearing face coverings.”
Suffolk County also has an advanced testing and contact tracing system that is making a difference as the area reopens.
Meanwhile, earlier today, Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) signed an executive order requiring local police agencies to develop a plan that reinvents and modernizes police strategies and programs in their community based on community input. Each police agency’s plan must include procedures and practices that extend beyond the use of force by April 1, 2021.
The police forces have to engage the public in the process, present a plan for comments, and share that plan with a local legislative body. If the government doesn’t certify the plan, the police may not be eligible to receive future state funding.
Bellone said he “looks forward to working with the state” on community police policies. The county executive said he is proud of the work the Suffolk County Police Department has done with anti-bias training.
The SCPD has “developed leading edge initiatives.”
Cuomo also signed a bill passed by the state senate earlier this week repealing 50-a, a statue in civil law that prevented people from accessing records of police and other civil servants like firefighters. Advocates said this will allow more transparency, especially regarding police misconduct. Police unions and senate republicans said this would puts cops in more danger, despite proponents saying people cannot gain access to cops’ personal information.
Bellone reemphasized a point he has made in recent days amid the backlash against unjust and unfair policing polices, suggesting that the police are “part of the community, they aren’t coming into the community” from the outside.
Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said she met this morning at 11 a.m. with the President of the Guardians, which is an internal fraternal organization representing black officers. She meets with the Guardians on a monthly basis.
Officers in the Guardian “know they have accessibility to leadership,” Hart said. “Those conversations lead to suggestions.”
The discussion this morning was more informal and was part of an open conversation and dialog.
As for the impact of COVID-19 in the county, the numbers continue to show a hard-fought recovery from the deadly virus.
Hospitalizations in the 24 hours ending on June 10 declined by 17 to 134. The number of residents in the Intensive Care Unit also declined by four to 41.
“These are all great numbers,” Bellone said.
An additional 16 people were discharged from hospitals in the county.
The bed capacity remained below important levels. Residents with COVID-19 represented 66 percent of the overall beds, and below 60 percent of the ICU beds, which are below the 70 percent guidance offered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The county handed out 17,000 pieces of personal protective equipment over the last day.
Finally, the county worked with Island Harvest to distribute food through a program called Nourish New York today.
The effort, which was at the Westfield South Shore Mall in Bay Shore, planned to distribute 100,000 pounds of food, including cheese, milk, yogurt, fresh fruit and vegetables and ground beef.
The program “helps those in this desperate time who need food” while preventing waste and supporting the agricultural community, Bellone said. Through 2 p.m., the program had handed out more than 2,500 boxes of food items.
On June 1, the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons and North Fork held a debate between the four candidates vying for the Democratic nomination and who will then face off against incumbent Lee Zeldin (R-NY1) for the New York’s 1st Congressional District seat. The nominees in the upcoming primary election June 23 are Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming (D-Sag Harbor), last year’s front-runner Perry Gershon, former educator Nancy Goroff and Gregory Fisher, who has run for multiple local offices over the years.
Though the debate went on for more than an hour and a half, it did not touch on points such as the current protests against racism and police violence currently rocking the nation.
Here’s what they had to say on a number of key issues and challenges facing the district.
1.On what issues do you think there is a reasonable possibility of enacting legislation to benefit the country?
Bridget Fleming
Fleming: I’m known as someone who has reached across the aisle and looks at problems and challenges with an eye toward hearing from all stakeholders. Then taking on the tough decisions to move forward. I have a proven record on that.
There are a number of issues that face our congressional district. One, for instance, is immigration. Many people feel that the current immigration system needs comprehensive reform. Individuals are so enamored with special interests.
Another issue is the epidemic of gun violence. There is a consensus in the country on commonsense background checks, on a ban on assault weapons, and a ban on high-capacity magazines. There are many issues upon which the country agrees but because of the influence of special interests and someone like Lee Zeldin, who has a perfect record from the NRA, caters to those special interests. We can get beyond that.
Gershon: The goal when I’m your congressman is to enact policy that we can do on a bipartisan basis whenever possible. There is a crying need for certain policies as we go forward and try to climb out of the coronavirus-based recession. That’s building jobs. How do you do that? With infrastructure and investing in our economy. There was a glaring need for infrastructure even before coronavirus, and it’s doubled or tripled now.
We have the opportunity for green jobs, green energy in a new economy. We need Democrats and Republicans cooperating with each other. That obviously starts with getting [President] Donald Trump (R) out of the White House. With a uniter in the White House we can pass policies and take it beyond infrastructure, we can go to health care, the other real priority for America. We can build on the Affordable Care Act. We can make sure Americans understand that health care is a right not a privilege.
Goroff: If I’m elected my top priority is to make sure we are taking meaningful action on climate change, which is the largest threat we face to our way of life, even today. I can do that by acting as a resource for members of Congress from both sides of the aisle — making sure they have access to the best information available, making sure all their questions are answered and holding their feet to the fire to ensure we are taking action. We will make sure we are setting ambitious targets as we strive for a carbon zero economy.
We invest in deploying existing technologies, in reusable energy, in clean vehicles, and in clean buildings.
Fisher: One of the important issues is that voters don’t feel like they are being listened to. They are looking at a lack of access to their representatives. We are crippled economically, people are out of a job and can’t pay their bills. They want to know how you are going to get things done and get us out of trouble.
I subscribed to a philosophy called a decentralized autonomous organization, where citizens can input every detail, on what they want to influence. I have an economic plan that will eliminate the scarcity caused by this long-term economic shutdown.
2. As a congressperson what specific proposals would you support to improve our immigration system?
Nancy Goroff
Goroff: We need to take action toward making comprehensive immigration reform. We must prepare a pathway to citizenship for our Dreamers and we must make sure we are allowing families to be reunited. We can’t be separating children from their families at the border and we should be considering more effective/humane ways to help people coming in who want to claim asylum.
The fact that people have to wait for months or years, and now we are imprisoning them — is unnecessary and unconscionable. We should be looking at why we have such a stream of refugees coming to our border. There are programs that were started in Central America by the Obama administration to help refugees on the ground, so they don’t have to leave. We need to make sure we are reinstating these programs that can keep refugees from thinking the only opportunity is to walk 1,000 miles across Mexico. Our policy must be humane and must live up to our American values.
Fisher: Most citizens want several points addressed. They want registration, they don’t want a secret population, they want taxation, they want to make sure they are paying their share. The other one is assimilation and education so that those people are ready for our society.
There are people out there that are starving for the opportunity to be a part of this American dream.
Fleming: The immigration system in the United States is deeply broken and needs comprehensive immigration reform. It needs to be the top priority of anyone’s agenda who is looking to take a job on Capitol Hill.
We need to fix our broken visa system. Luckily in Suffolk County, we have allies in the farm community who have been deeply hurt by the system and can’t find enough workers to harvest their crops. That is an alliance we can lean on in Suffolk County to move that process forward and make reforms.
We need to end separations of families at the border. It is inhumane and unacceptable. We need a clean DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] bill, we need to restore TPS [Temporary Protected Status]. We need to ensure that the border is secure, but secure because we have undertaken a system of immigration that is fair and humane.
Perry Gershon
Gershon: It’s no secret that immigration was a challenge in this country even before the election of Donald Trump. We have been trying to solve our immigration issue for many years and under many different presidents.
Trump has made a bad situation and made it worse. We’ve got to take care of the Dreamers, people who are in this country through no fault of their own, who did not commit a crime, and have no nation they call home except America. We need to give them a path to citizenship, we need to take care of TPS recipients. We need to have defensible borders, we need to have a system where people do not just flock into America. We need to be able to secure our borders and be able to maintain them while we take care of the people here.
3.How can we bring affordable housing, job creation to LI, especially for millennials?:
Goroff: Now with COVID-19, millennials are facing another challenge in getting their careers started. As a lifelong educator, I believe in making education available to people and to make it affordable. That means making sure we have sufficient Pell grants for our students. So people and families can afford excellent degrees and they can get good jobs.
We also need to make sure all jobs are paying a true livable wage and that means investing in new jobs here, like clean energy and increasing the minimum wage. We also need to address the health care issue because it is a burden on businesses.
Fisher:We have created a generation of homeless millennials. Why? Because they can’t leave their parents’ homes, they can’t afford to buy a house or pay the rent for an apartment. They are living late in life at their parent’s houses. My plan would include a revamp of the tax system, so we have money to invest [in the economy]. Education should be a right, we need to build America.We need to fundamentally make a new commitment to young people and realize that we have betrayed them.
Gregory Fischer
Fleming: This is one of the critical challenges here in Suffolk County and in NY1. It is something at the county legislature we have attacked with real intention and real success. For instance, look at the Village of Patchogue and the surrounding areas.
The developments of these vibrant downtowns are encouraging young people to stay on Long Island and make a life here.
I’ve been fighting for affordable housing since my time on the [Southampton] town board.
Gershon: People want to stay here and not to be forced to move away because of better jobs. The way we fix that is get better paying jobs here on Long Island so that young people can move here. Also, we need to improve their educational prospects by not having them come out of school massively burdened by student debt. We need to do things like reducing the cost of student debt. The federal government should not be making a profit off it by lending to our students so they can afford to go to college. The government should be facilitating college education.
We can give people the opportunity to pay off some of their student debt in exchange for national service. Let them be teachers, let them do things that will improve our own society.
On affordable housing, we need to bring money into Long Island. We need to fund housing for the middle class, we need to find a way that doesn’t force people away. The government can do that, it can be a federal policy. We need fair development as well.
Dr. Kenneth Kaushansky, the dean of the Stony Brook Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, is eager to restart the educational mission of training medical school students.
Dr. Kenneth Kaushansky, the dean of the medical school at SBU, said there’s a real possibility of a second wave of COVID-19. File photo
While Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has said that medical schools can restart on June 22, Kaushansky has asked for a waiver to allow students to continue to build on their clinical knowledge sooner.
“I was worried about the delay in doing the experiential learning,” Kaushansky said. A delay that lasts too long could push graduation back for the rising fourth year students, which is “not good for any health care professional. We need health care professionals, including respiratory therapists, physical therapists, nurses and social workers” among others.
On top of the need to ensure on-time graduation for the Class of 2021, he said another wave of the COVID-19 crisis will increase the demand for graduates.
The medical school dean said Stony Brook University Hospital is watching carefully the protests over the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd at the hands of a police officer charged with his murder. The hospital and staff are ready in the event of a spike in demand for health care after large gatherings on Long Island and in New York City.
“We are ready to mobilize on a moment’s notice because we did it the first” time, albeit with numerous questions about the course and potential treatment for the new virus, Kaushansky said.
On Saturday, he sent out a letter to the health sciences community addressing what he termed “health care racism.”
“We witnessed the sum of all these effects in the disproportionate lethal burden of COVID-19 on communities of color, a combination of overcrowding at home, of jobs that do not allow the protection afforded by work from home, or from the disproportionate burden of health care conditions that arise, in part, from health care disparities,” he wrote in the letter. He urged the Stony Brook community to “do everything in our power to work toward erasing the social determinants of disease that contribute to our unequal society.”
He urged learners and critical staff to develop and practice cultural sensitivities, and he also suggested that the school should make “certain our graduates reflect the diverse society in which we live.”
In its admission decisions, SBU includes the notion of overcoming hardship as a part of the process through which the school evaluates prospective students.
In the coming years, Kaushansky plans to emphasize further the importance of encouraging those who have faced significant hurdles in applying to the medical school.
In terms of treating patients who have COVID-19, he is encouraged by the use of remdesivir and convalescent plasma. The school has these treatments available for people who are sick and is studying the effectiveness of these approaches.
More than 1,500 patients have been admitted through the university hospital, Southampton and Eastern Long Island hospitals and have benefited from the clinical study of symptoms including clots.
Surgeons had noticed that D-dimer levels, which are proteins that indicate the presence of clots, were shooting up. They decided when this protein reached a certain level, they would use a full dose of anticoagulants.
Stony Brook has put the results of these aggressive anticoagulant treatments into an article that has been submitted for publication.
In the meantime, the university has taken an across-the-board approach to raising anticoagulants.
“That will improve the mortality rate should we get a second wave,” Kaushansky predicted.
In the event of a second wave, Stony Brook Hospital and, indeed, New York will be better prepared, with more tests, greater awareness and contact tracing.
Kaushansky believes that the people who have already fought off the virus are presumably immune from getting it a second time. What’s unclear, he explained, is whether the antibody test is predictive of resistance. Additionally, it’s unclear how long that resistance will last.
He expects that monoclonal antibodies can work, but that they should be reserved for the sickest patients. They are expensive and are hard to produce the level necessary for the U.S. population of more than 300 million people.
What worries the Stony Brook dean is that people have had enough of staying at home, social distancing and wearing masks. In the worst of the crisis, when the numbers of people sick and dying were climbing, Kaushansky could get to work in much less time than normal, as traffic on the roads had lightened up considerably.
Days before the Phase 2 reopening, which began on Wednesday of this week, the level of traffic has returned to a more normal density.
Meanwhile, Phase 2 for Stony Brook University involves reopening research laboratories and allowing people who were previously deemed nonessential workers to return to the labs in an “orderly and safe fashion,” Kaushansky said.
The university has installed plexiglass shields, requires social distancing, built partitions between people who don’t have their own offices, and requires everyone to wear masks and have their temperatures taken when they come to work.
The hospital opened up for elective surgery two weeks ago. Everyone who is scheduled for surgery has to get a viral swab the day before.
The approach the university has taken in requiring personal protective equipment and social distancing has paid off for hospital staff who have been exposed to all those sick patients. The rate of antibody tests of employees is much lower than in the general community.
“It’s safer to be a frontline health worker at Stony Brook than to work at some grocery stories,” Kaushansky said.
On the clinical side, he believes Stony Brook Hospital needs more highly skilled nurses. At the peak, the university hospital had 437 patients. If it had reached 500, “we would have been in trouble,” he added.
Upstate New York had sent 20 experienced nurses to help out.
“Nursing is important and high-level nursing, operating-room nursing, was particularly stressed,” Kaushansky said. “We need to hire more nurses.”
He added that the school trains excellent nurses and plans to hire some of its own graduates.
In terms of medical school classes, the dean said the university hasn’t decided yet whether to bring small groups back together. The big lecture halls will still involve remote teaching.
“Are the smaller group educational exercises going to be back safely?” he asked. “I’m working to make that happen.”
Kaushansky takes solace in the way PPE reduced the infection rate for the hospital as a whole, and believes such an approach could work for medical school classes as well.
Even as Phase Two of the economic restart began yesterday, County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said he has reached out to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s (D) office to request the restart of other activities.
Bellone has asked that youth sports be permitted. He said he also would like to see non-touch museums that have large spaces with capacity limits reopen.
“Some of that was lumped into Phase Four with mass gathering-type activities,” said Bellone on his daily conference call with reporters. The county is looking at what it can open up sooner.
Bellone, who spent parts of the first day of Phase Two getting a haircut, dining out and enjoying ice cream with a tour of several downtowns in Suffolk, said the reopening was “off to a good start” and that it helped people feel more of a sense of normalcy.
Bellone reminded business owners that the county started a personal protective equipment giveaway.
The county is providing some cloth face coverings and hand sanitizer to small businesses, nonprofit companies and faith based organizations.
“Reopening businesses in this environment is a challenge,” Bellone said. “To the extent we can do something that helps them a little bit, we want to do this.”
Bellone said 403 businesses had filled out applications for those supplies since Monday and that 226 businesses had picked up those kits. Interested business owners can find a supply request form at suffolkcountyny.gov/bru.
Viral Numbers
Over the last 24 hours, an additional 48 people have tested positive for COVID-19, which brings the total to 40,512. The county executive hopes that number continues to remain below 100 for any given day.
The number of new infection numbers continues to remain below 100 despite protests in response to the murder of Minneapolis resident George Floyd.
Bellone said it might still be a little early to draw any conclusions about the potential spread of the virus in response to the protests. He will be looking more closely at the new infection rates through the weekend and into the beginning of next week.
“My sense is that being outdoors is a safe environment,” the county executive said.
For the 24 hour period ending on June 9, the number of people in hospitals with COVID-19 declined by 14 to 151. The number of people in Intensive Care Units declined by one to 45.
Hospital bed occupancy from people with the coronavirus stood at 66 percent for hospital beds overall and at 60 percent for ICU beds.
An additional 15 people were discharged from the hospital and are continuing their recovery from the virus at home.
Meanwhile, the number of people who died from complications related to COVID-19 increased by four in the last day. The total for the same period ending yesterday was two, which brings the total to 1,945.
The county distributed an additional 26 pieces of personal protective equipment over the last day.
From left, Port Jeff chamber president Mary Joy Pipe, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, Salon Blonde owner Melissa Hanley, Mayor Margot Garant celebrate the start of Phase Two reopening June 10. Photo by Kyle Barr
With Phase Two reopening coming to fruition Wednesday, June 10, Port Jefferson village has looked for several ways for business owners to get their wares and services outside.
Debra Bowling, owner of Pasta Pasta in Port Jeff, set up tables outside for Phase Two reopening. Photo by Kyle Barr
Village officials have already talked about setting up areas in parking lots to allow for more outdoor dining space. At its June 1 meeting, the village voted to waive all dining table application fees for the upcoming season. Mayor Margot Garant said the village has been working with a host of restaurants to figure out how they may go about offering outdoor services.
The mayor said the village is allowing space for restaurants who normally have no space for outdoor dining in right-of-ways, walkways and parking lots.
By midday Wednesday, the town was jiving. With a steady stream of cars rolling down Main Street, and with customers sitting under canopy eating outdoors, many owners said Phase Two was turning out to be a much better scenario than Phase One.
During a tour of Suffolk downtowns, including Port Jeff, County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said the difference in allowing construction in the first reopening phase and allowing salons or outdoor dining has been significant.
“After going through an unprecedented event, these are the activities that give people a sense of normalcy,” Bellone said.
Restaurants are setting up in formerly public places, such as Ruvo East and Old Fields which are laying tents in the space behind their restaurants. C’est Cheese and The Pie are also doing outside dining behind the main building on Main Street. Prohibition Kitchen will be using the parking lot behind its building as well.
Manager of The Pie, Jessica Janowicz, said though they will be setting up a tent behind the business Friday, each week has seen a slow progression in sales. Wednesday showed a big difference, with a steady stream of customers doing takeout since the place opened.
Other restaurants will be using pedestrian walkways for its outdoor space, including Salsa Salsa, which will have some space in the alleyway next to the shop. Pasta Pasta and Toast Coffeehouse are laying out tables at the top of the stairway along East Main Street.
Debra Bowling, the owner of Pasta Pasta, thanked the Port Jeff chamber and the village for working so quickly with permits and signage. Her restaurant now has several tables and a flower box in front of her shop, and in over 30 years of working there, it’s the first time she has seen it do outdoor dining.
Alana Miletti of Fame and Rebel speaks about Phase Two with County Executive Steve Bellone. Photo by Kyle Barr
Some restaurants that have access to the outside, including Nantuckets, Gourmet Burger Bistro, The Steam Room and SaGhar, will use their current outdoor space as long as it can be open up to the sky. Danfords has its outdoor space on its dock and now has an agreement with the Town of Brookhaven for some use of the Mary Bayles Waterfront Park.
A member of the village fire marshals did not respond to requests for comment about guidelines for safety in walkable areas.
The Greater Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce released a letter dated June 5 to the Village of Port Jefferson mayor and trustees asking that retailers be allowed some latitude for “outdoor merchandising.”
“The consumer would have the ability to ‘shop’ in a less confined area and the retailer would be creating more opportunities for sales,” the letter states.
Director of operations for the chamber Barbara Ransome said she has had positive feedback from village trustees on the proposal.
Garant said they are working up guidelines that should be released sometime on Wednesday, but those were not available by press time. Retailers will have the option to have a table in front of their shops, but they will need to keep 3 feet of sidewalk clear and ensure that they do not block doorways or fire exits, as mandated by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for outdoor dining.
Code Enforcement will be inspecting businesses and restaurants to ensure they’re not blocking too much of the curb or that they’re adhering to the CDC distancing guidelines.
“We’re trying to keep it so that it’s nice looking and it’s not an overload of stuff,” Garant said.
Alana Miletti, the owner of the boutique shop Fame and Rebel, said she has survived in the grueling months of the pandemic thanks to her active social media helping facilitate online orders. Though on Wednesday she said with customers able to browse, even in a limited capacity, she had not had a moment’s rest fulfilling orders since the store opened.
“People couldn’t wait to come out,” she said.
Now with Phase Two salons and haircutters are finally able to open. Melissa Hanley, the owner of Salon Blonde, said she managed to survive during the nearly three full months she was shut down thanks to federal loans. Being back in action, however, means a world of difference.
“It’s been scary — we’ve been struggling a little bit,” Hanley said. “It’s such a relief. This is my life so, to be back in business, I’ve waited a long time for it.”
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