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Stony Brook University

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Investors Bank on Route 25A in Setauket. Photo by Rita J. Egan

Investors Bank donated $100,000 to Stony Brook University Hospital to aid during the height of the COVID-19 crisis.

Investors, which recently completed the acquisition of Gold Coast Bancorp, granted Stony Brook the funds in April through the bank’s charitable foundation to the university hospital’s foundation. 

“We want Stony Brook to use this grant to fight this pandemic and provide assistance to the real heroes – those doctors, nurses, and administrators on the front line,” Investors Bank Chairman and CEO Kevin Cummings said in a statement. “They are doing a fantastic job under unimaginable circumstances and we want to support them any way we can.”

The original impetus for the grant came from John Tsunis, the former Gold Coast Chairman and CEO and current Chairman of Investors Bank Long Island Advisory Board. He said he was grateful Investors “is continuing that partnership and that its core values echo what the Long Island communities have come to expect from Gold Coast.”

Since the start of the ongoing pandemic, Stony Brook University Hospital has seen support from many sides, from donations such as this to average citizens and local businesses donating hospital supplies and food to beleaguered health care staff.

“Words cannot describe how grateful we are to receive this grant,” said Carol Gomes, the CEO of Stony Brook University Hospital. “We could not get through this without the community doing everything humanly possible to assist. On behalf of everyone, we so greatly appreciate your support, kindness and generosity. It will be put to very good use.”

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The exterior of Stony Brook Children's Hospital. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

COVID-19, which was considered especially threatening to the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions, may also have triggered an inflammatory illness that is sickening children in several places throughout the world, including in Suffolk County.

An inflammatory illness in children with symptoms that mimic Kawasaki disease has sickened seven in Suffolk County and officials are expecting more cases of the rare condition here and throughout the country.

Stony Brook Pediatric Hospital has admitted two cases of the multi-inflammatory pediatric condition, for residents who are 10 and 19 years old.

With other hospitals showing rare but similar unusual pediatric cases, including in the United Kingdom and New York City, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is preparing to release an alert about the inflammatory condition, a CDC spokesman told CNN.

Symptoms of the new illness include an extended fever, a rash, red eyes, red lips, a strawberry tongue, lower blood pressure and abdominal symptoms like vomiting and diarrhea.

Stony Brook, Pediatric Hospital has been “treating patients like we would treat and approach Kawasaki Disease,” said Christy Beneri, the Fellowship Program Director in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital. The hospital has provided intravenous immunoglobulin, a high dose of aspirin and steroids to decrease inflammation and other medications to help suppress the inflammatory syndrome.

This rare inflammatory process in children has developed weeks after a likely mild or asymptomatic case of COVID-19 in mostly healthy younger patients.

Patients can develop symptoms from “days to weeks” after an infection with the virus that has caused the pandemic, Beneri said. The majority of people with this inflammatory reaction are either testing positive for COVID-19 when they come to the hospital or have a positive antibody test, which indicates their immune systems mounted a defense against the virus, Beneri added.

It is unclear to doctors what is causing the progression from a manageable response to the virus to an inflammation that may require a trip to the hospital and to the Intensive Care Unit.

“We are trying to understand how the coronavirus is causing vasculitis,” Beneri said. “It has something to do with how the virus is affecting blood vessels and organs.”

To be sure, Beneri reassured children and their parents that most of the children who are infected with Covid-19 will not develop these inflammatory symptoms later.

“The majority will do well,” Beneri said.

Nonetheless, Beneri anticipated that more pediatric residents in Suffolk County would likely show signs of this inflammatory response.

“If their child is having fever for a number of days, significant vomiting or diarrhea, belly pain, red eyes or a rash, it is important that they speak with their doctor,” Beneri said.

One of the reasons Suffolk County is seeing some cases of this Kawasaki-like response in children now, weeks after the pandemic infected thousands in the area, likely relates to the timing of the peak infections, which occurred in the middle of April.

Based on conversations Beneri has had with other pediatricians who are treating patients with similar symptoms, she said the patients tend to be “healthy kids” who have often had a contact with someone in their house who was recently diagnosed with COVID-19.

The child may have brought the virus into the home and passed it along to a parent, who became sick. The child, however, later develops these multiple-symptom inflammatory issues.

While some children have died from this condition, Beneri said the majority of them are recovering.

The duration of hospital stays has varied, with some patients requiring 10 days in the hospital, while others have recovered within a few days. Beneri said Stony Brook has already sent one patient home.

Beneri added Nassau County has also had several teenage patients come in with the same symptoms. She expects more Suffolk pediatric patients with similar symptoms to come to county hospitals.

Parents should be on the lookout, primarily, for persistent fevers over the course of several days with significant abdominal pain, Beneri said. “If they start developing other symptoms, such as red eyes and a rash and they are not getting better” then parents should contact their doctor or a hospital, Beneri advised.

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Stony Brook University's COVID-19 testing site. Photo by Matthew Niegocki

With 694 more people testing positive for the coronavirus, the number of confirmed cases in Suffolk County is now 40,483.

In the Suffolk County hotspot testing sites, the number of positive tests was 1,320 out of 3,412 total tests.

The percentage of positive tests at these hotspots is 38.7, compared with 33 percent for the county as a whole.

Antibody testing for law enforcement continues, with 1,581 law enforcement officers tested by Northwell Health and New York State so far.

The number of people who have died from complications related to coronavirus increased by 21 in the last day, bringing the total to 1,568 for Suffolk County. As of yesterday, the deaths from the virus exceed the number of people killed over 100 years ago aboard the Titanic. The staggering number represents what will likely be a turning point for the county, let alone the entire country which topped 77,000 deaths.

County Executive Steve Bellone’s (D) office distributed another 163,000 pieces of personal protective equipment yesterday, bringing the total number of such life-saving items to over four million since the crisis began in March.

Bellone didn’t have the closely watched hospitalization information today because the reporting system was down.

Separately, Bellone said the county was able to honor the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.

“Today, we would normally be bringing together our veterans and particularly our World War II veterans to honor them and thank them for what they did for our nation,” said Bellone during his daily call with reporters.

A group including Suffolk County Chief of Police Stuart Cameron and Suffolk County Veterans Services Agency Director Thomas Ronayne raised an American flag above Armed Forces Plaza today. The group saluted the flag and then brought it to the state veteran’s home.

That home has been hit especially hard by the pandemic. As of May 5, the home reported 65 residents have passed away due to the coronavirus. Additionally, 68 residents have tested positive, where out of those four are receiving treatment at neighboring Stony Brook University Hospital. 30 of those veterans are in the post-COVID recovery phase.

Bellone said the county also celebrated the graduation of 70 members of the police academy. While the ceremony was different than it otherwise would have been prior to the pandemic, the event, which was broadcast on Facebook, was watched by more than 25,000 people.

“Their willingness to step forward at any given moment to risk their lives for strangers is an extraordinary thing,” Bellone said. “We thanked them and their family members.”

Separately, as for the national and local elections coming this November, Bellone said he hopes the bipartisan cooperation that has characterized the response in Suffolk County and New York will continue.

“I don’t know if we’re going to see that on a national level [but] at the local level, we are working together in ways we haven’t in many years, maybe not since 9/11,” Bellone said. “That’s what we should do.”

Bellone suggested the county didn’t have “time to spare to worry about partisan nonsense.”

He pointed out how he and Comptroller John M. Kennedy Jr. (R), who ran against Bellone to become county executive, have been “working closely together to address issues here. I’m hopeful that will continue.”

Stony Brook Closes Satellite ER

Stony Brook University is closing the emergency room field satellite in the South P Lot amid a decline in the number of patients.

The hospital will keep equipment inside the tents in case of future need. The health care workers who had been staffing the field site will return to the hospital.

Stony Brook had seen approximately 2,600 patients at the coronavirus triage sites.

The drive-through testing site in the South P Lot will remain open. That site has tested 27,515 patients.

Residents who would like a test need to make appointments in advance, by calling 888-364-3065. The site is open seven days a week, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Stony Brook University Hospital’s Team Lavender, and a Staff Support Team, delivered care packages to the employees at the Long Island State Veterans Home. The team put together 170 containers filled with donated items from the community including gum, chapsticks, drinks and snacks. They also included trays of home-baked goods, crocheted ear savers, and masks made by a veteran.

Team Lavender volunteers include doctors, nurses, social workers, patient advocates, chaplains, a faculty and staff care team, employee assistance program and employee health program. The team provides emotional, spiritual and psychological support for faculty and staff after an adverse or unexpected event.

Team Lavender completed a successful pilot during the last year in the NICU and maternity units. Team Lavender has worked together with the Staff Support Team to provide hospital wide support. Their efforts, previously performed in-person, are now available virtually for faculty and staff.

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Amanda Groveman, a Stony Brook Medicine Quality Management Practitioner, holding a "My Story" poster for Kevin, who enjoys bowling among his hobbies. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

Patients battling COVID-19 at Stony Brook University Hospital have allies who can see them and their lives outside the context of the current pandemic.

Thanks to a team of nurses at Stony Brook who are calling family members to gather information and putting together pictures the family members are sending, over 89 patients have received the kind of personalized support they might have gotten if their family and friend network were allowed in the hospital during the pandemic.

“You get everything,” said Amanda Groveman, a Stony Brook Medicine Quality Management Practitioner, who has worked at the hospital since 2006 and created a Power Point template for the information. Family members are sending pictures at of them during Christmas, of people playing various sports, of pets, of other family members, and even a wedding picture from the 1930’s.

Once the nurses gather this information, they print out two copies and laminate them. One copy goes in the room, where the patient can also see it, and the other is in the hallway, where the doctor or nurse who is about to walk in can get a broader look at the life of the patient in the bed on the other side of the door.

The effort, called “My Story,” is an extension of a similar initiative at the hospital for patients who have Alzheimer’s Disease and might also have trouble sharing their lives with the health care workers.

The nurses involved in the program include: Chief of Regulatory Affairs Carolyn Santora, Assistant Director of Nursing Susan Robbins, Director of Quality Management Grace Propper, Lisa Reagan, the patient coordinator and Nurse Practitioner April Plank.

“It’s not just a bullet point checklist,” Groveman said. “It’s creating a history of this patient.”

Some patients like to hear a particular type of music. Indeed, one patient routinely listened to so much “Willie Nelson, that was all he wanted to listen to.”

Grovemen said the contact with the family also connects the nurses to that family’s support network, which they now aren’t able to see in eerily empty waiting rooms.

“You speak to these families and then you feel like you do know this person well,” Groveman said. “At a certain point, it’s not just about the patient. It’s about the whole support system. You’re pulling not just for them, but for their whole family.”

The pictures serve as an inspiration for the nurses as well, who get to share their passion for pets or for sports teams.

These connections are especially important, as some patients have been in the ICU for weeks.

Each time a person leaves the hospital, the staff plays the Beatles song, “Here Comes the Sun,” which has also been encouraging to the hospital staff who has been treating them.

When Groveman returns to her family, which includes her husband Matt and their two children, each night, she puts her clothing in the washing machine and takes a shower before she enjoys her own family time.

“As soon as I walk in, they say, ‘No hug yet,’” Groveman said. Her kids have been “really good” about the new nightly pattern.

A by product of her new routine is that Groveman has also been washing her hands and wrists so often that she has developed what her daughter calls “lizard skin.”

She insists on disinfecting everything that comes in the house, which means that she has a collection of cardboard boxes on her porch that wait there until recycling day.

Amid all the public health struggles she and her fellow nurses see every day, she appreciates how Stony Brook has set up a room where nurses can meditate and relax.

Groveman said she’s surprised by the number of people who are coming in who are in their 30’s and 40’s. One of the more challenging elements of caring for patients is, for her, that she sees people who come in who are not in bad shape, but “unfortunately, with this, it can just be all of a sudden someone takes a downturn.”

Groveman had previously worked in pediatrics, where she said she recognized that any treatment for children also benefited the broader family.

“You are treating the family as well,” she said. “You really want to make that connection. Being a nurse is about making that connection.”

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Stock photo

Even as Suffolk County emerges from the worst of the public health crisis from COVID-19, County Executive Steve Bellone (D) expressed concern about the mental health toll the last few weeks has taken on residents.

“Throughout the crisis, we have talked about mental health,” Bellone said on his daily conference call with reporters. “As we move forward, it’s going to become a more important issue.”

People have been reacting to the crisis and helping others. During these stressors, residents have been “going on instinct” and are “exhausted,” Bellone said. “It’s when you start to slow down a bit or move away, that a lot of what you’ve encountered, what you’ve faced can start to manifest itself.”

He anticipates seeing more mental health challenges as the county moves out of this crisis period.

Bellone said he has encouraged residents to contact his office through 311 if they are dealing with mental health challenges, such as depression or anxiety. The Family Service League has provided health care for first responders, health care workers and veterans through a hotline.

The scale of the losses during the pandemic through April has been enormous, Bellone said. With an additional 26 people dying over the last day from complications related to COVID-19, the number of deaths for the county has reached 1,203.

The number of deaths highlights the reason residents in the county need to follow social distancing guidelines and remain at home, to the extent possible. Each day, the county moves closer to the 14-day period during which hospitalizations from COVID-19 decrease, which the county will reach if the declines continue through May 5.

In the last day, 67 fewer people were in the hospital from the virus, bringing the total to 903. Even as some residents were admitted to the hospital, 98 people left the hospital to continue their recoveries at home.

The number of people in the Intensive Care Unit from the virus has also dropped by 20 to 324.

In the last 24 hours, the county has also distributed 37,000 personal protective equipment, bringing the total to over 3.1 million since the pandemic reached Long Island.

Suffolk Forward Business Programs

Separately, the county executive announced a program to support small businesses called Suffolk Forward. Designed with Stony Brook University College of Business, the programs were created to help Suffolk County businesses respond to the current economic reality and develop ways to use resources.

Businesses will have the chance to gather information about new ways to increase revenue, build on their technology tools, refine business models, and receive individualized expert business advice.

Suffolk County and its partners will send a needs assessment survey to the restaurant, retail, and construction industries. After reading the replies, Stony Brook University will provide needed services and will report and track the results.

The first effort is the Suffolk Forward Gift Card Platform, which provides a one stop shop for Suffolk County residents to pre-purchase goods and services to support local retail and services businesses during the pandemic. The platform, which was created by Huntington-based eGifter, is free for businesses to participate. To purchase gift cards online, or to have your business feature on the web platform, click here.

The second initiative is the Suffolk Forward Job Board, which provides Suffolk County Residents with access to regional job opportunities and businesses with a pool of applicants seeking new jobs. Suffolk County will provide new details over time.

The last three initiative, Tech Enhancement Program, the Suffolk Forward “Pandemic Shift” Business Workshops, and the Suffolk Forward Virtual Expert Network, provide small businesses with Stony Brook support and education services.

Through the Tech Enhancement Program, local businesses can identify their business technology needs and Stony Brook University business, computer science and IT students, under the direction of faculty, will assess the technology needs of each business and advise the owners. Technology can help businesses reopen during the pandemic and stay open.

The Suffolk Forward “Pandemic Shift” Business Workshops, which are coordinated by the Stony Brook University College of Business, offer a series of four 90-minute video workshops and peer support to help small businesses deal with four key steps: hope, survival, focus and pivot.

The Suffolk Forward Virtual Expert Network provides small businesses with complimentary consultation via virtual office hours with Stony Brook University College of Business professors. The free sessions aim to provide business leaders with the tools that could help them tackle ongoing business challenges.

New York Closes All Schools Until End of School Year

With the question hanging above educators heads for the past month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) finally announced all schools in the state will remain closed until the end of the school year due to the ongoing pandemic. The decision applies to both grade school and higher education, and will mandate the use of distance learning for the next several months.

“Teachers did a phenomenal job stepping up to do this,” Cuomo said. “We made the best of a situation.”

The governor added with the number of school districts and children, it mandates precautions to protect young and old during the pandemic. He said it would not be possible to create a system that would socially distance children while also transporting them and keeping them in schools.

The decision also waives the requirement districts have 180 days of learning per school year.

Regarding in-person summer school, the governor said a decision will be made by the end of May.

On the topic of summer camps, Cuomo said just as he was leaving the press briefing that “whatever regional decision will also apply to the summer camps.”

SC Supervisors Discuss Summer

Meanwhile, the Suffolk County Supervisors Association announced a joint planning effort with three Nassau County Town Supervisors to develop ways to coordinate summer programs across all 13 towns. The group, which Babylon Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer is leading, is known as the Nassau/ Suffolk County Summer Operations Task Force.

The group, which met on Zoom for the first time today, dealt with a number of issues. They wanted to ensure consistent social distancing guidelines across communities.

They also planned to sync the timing of beach, park and facilities as much as they could, to ensure variation among areas doesn’t lead to a surge in crowding at any location. If they needed to close beaches, they also wanted to prevent crowds from forming in any town.

Uniform policies for beach usage, park activity and playground policies will ensure the safest approach to these areas, the supervisors said.

The group announced a goal of May 18 to issue guidelines the towns could agree on.

“Just as we consider the shared service model for other purposes, from purchasing to relieving overcrowding at our animal shelters, inconsistency in policies can lead to greater demand and greater risk at a single location, which we intend to avoid as the purpose of this collaboration,” said Town of Huntington Supervisor Chad Lupinacci (R). “Each Town has something to offer from our parks and beaches to our waterfront facilities — we want our residents and their families to enjoy everything our Towns have to offer without adding unnecessary risk.”

Beaches Open for Hiking and Jogging, not Swimming

Meanwhile, Brookhaven Town will open West Meadow, Cedar in Mount Sinai and Corey in Blue Point.

The Town is not opening the beach at these locations. Prohibited items and activities include chairs, umbrellas, blankets, coolers, fishing, congregating and any sporting activity. Dogs are also not allowed. No lifeguards will be on duty.

Residents will be allowed to walk, hike, and jog at these beaches as long as they maintain social distancing. Masks are recommended. Parking will be limited to 50% of capacity. Code enforcement and parks staff will maintain parking limits and patrol areas to ensure social distancing compliance.

The rules allow for passive uses only. People can’t congregate or engage in sports activities, or use playground equipment. People are also not allowed to shake hands or engage in any unnecessary physical contact. There is no fishing, swimming, blankets, coolers, umbrellas or beach chairs. Social distancing requires six feet between people who don’t live in the same home.  When residents can’t social distance, they have to wear face coverings.

Residents with coughs or fever are not permitted. The restrooms are closed. The town encourages people to limit their stays to allow other residents to enjoy the areas. Once the maximum 50% capacity is reached in the parking lots, they will close. As cars leave, others can visit.

With additional reporting by Rita Egan and Kyle Barr

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SBU Professor Malcolm Bowman teaches an online course from his 'office' in a camper in New Zealand during the coronavirus pandemic.
The ultimate in remote teaching: 9,000 miles from the classroom

By Daniel Dunaief

Halfway between where they grew up and their home in Stony Brook, Malcolm and Waveney Bowman had a choice to make: venture back northeast to New York, which was in the midst of a growing coronavirus crisis or return southwest to New Zealand, where the borders were quickly closing.

The couple chose New Zealand, where their extended family told them not to dare visit. The Do Not Enter sign wasn’t as inhospitable as it sounded.

Malcolm Bowman, a Distinguished Service Professor at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, recognized that he could continue to teach three courses from a great distance, even a camper on a small stretch of land in the northwest part of the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand.

“We could be anywhere on the planet,” Malcolm suggested to his wife. “Why don’t we see if we can set up camp?”

Climbing aboard the last plane out of Honolulu before New Zealand closed its borders, the Bowmans didn’t have much of a welcoming party when they arrived at the airport. Their family told them, “We love you, but you can’t come anywhere near us,” Malcolm recalled. “Coming from the states, you could be infected.”

If his family took the American couple in, they would have had to report the contact, which would have forced Waveney’s brother and his wife, Derek and Judy Olsson, into personal isolation for two weeks.

Derek filled the trunk of an old car with food and left the key under the front tire. The Stony Brook couple set up a temporary living space in two campers on a small piece of land in the middle of the night, where they have been living for over a month. All told, their 235 square feet of living space is about 12% of the size of their Long Island home.

The country has been in lockdown, where people are practicing social distancing and are limiting their non-essential outings.

Malcolm realized he had to “rise to the challenge” which, in his case, literally meant climbing out of his bed at all hours of the morning. New Zealand is 16 hours ahead of New York, which means that he had to be awake and coherent at 2 a.m. on Tuesday morning in New Zealand to teach a course that meets at 10 a.m. on Monday morning on Long Island.

With a cell tower up the hill behind their camper, the Bowmans could access the internet. While they had shelter, they still needed electricity. Fortunately, Malcolm’s brother Chris, who is an engineer, provided solar panels to generate electricity.

Living south of the equator means the Bowmans are heading into winter in New Zealand, where the days are shorter and the sun is lower in the sky, which makes the solar panels that provide electricity less effective. Malcolm describes the biggest challenges as the “time difference and mosquitoes.”

In a typical day, the professor rises at 4 a.m. or earlier local time to teach his classes, participate in online seminars, attend University Senate and other committee meetings, continue his research and take care of his students, all through Google Meet and Zoom. He co-teaches Physics for Environmental Studies, Contemporary Environmental Issues and Polices and Advanced Coastal Physical Oceanography.

Malcolm’s favorite part of the day occurs at sunrise, when the cloud formations over Mercury Bay serve as a canvas for the colorful red and orange rays of the sun that herald the start of another day down under.

He recognizes that he and his wife’s current indefinite time in New Zealand provides them with a comfortable connection to the land of his youth, where he can enjoy some of the beaches that have made the country famous and hear the sounds of flightless birds near his camper home.

Given the focus on work early in the day, Malcolm can choose his activities in the afternoon, which include catching up on emails, reading the New York Times, cleaning up the campsite and fishing for the evening’s meal.

Even from a distance of almost 9,000 miles from New York, the Bowmans agonize with their neighbors and community members in the Empire State.

“It’s very difficult watching all the suffering, sickness, death, inadequate availability of life-saving equipment, the enormous stress health care workers are under and the loss of income for many families,” Bowman explained in an email. “Our eldest daughter Gail is a medical worker at the Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead so she is fighting at the front line. Very exhausting work.”

The Bowmans, who are naturalized American citizens, have no idea when international flights will resume from New Zealand.

A retired elementary school teacher who taught at the Laurel Hill School in Setauket for 34 years, Waveney wears a mask when she visits a large supermarket that is 12 miles away once a week. Malcolm, who also goes to the supermarket, said the store only allows one family member per visit.

As New Zealand natives, the Bowmans can live in the country indefinitely, but their intention is to return to Stony Brook as soon as possible.

Even though the shorter daylight hours and rainy days lower the amount of power the Bowmans can collect from their solar panels, the couple loves the outdoors. They have camped with their four children during summers in the hills of New Hampshire and Vermont and have both been involved with scouting activities, which emphasizes self sufficiency and living close to nature.

As a former amateur radio enthusiast, Malcolm is also adept at setting up communication systems in remote settings. He offers a message of hope to Long Islanders, “You can weather this storm. If possible, work and stay home and stay isolated.”

The Bowmans have followed the advice of the 37-year old Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, who urges people to “be especially kind to each other.”

All photos courtesy of Malcolm Bowman

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With a reduction of 77 hospitalizations in the last 24 hours from COVID-19, hospitalizations have dropped over 40 percent from their peak on April 10.

Indeed, the number of people in the hospital because of the coronavirus has dropped to 970, which is close to the number who were in Suffolk County hospitals at the start of April.

The end of the month of April “couldn’t be more different than when we started,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on his daily conference call with reporters. “When we started [April], we had no idea whether that surge that we were talking about for so long would overwhelm” the health care system.

Bellone credited health care heroes with saving people’s lives and holding the line against the surge of people who developed symptoms from the disease.

The county is ending this month “in a far better place than we began,” Bellone added.

Even as hospitalizations have declined, however, residents are continuing to test positive for the virus, as the number of new positive tests increased by 723 to 34,802.

Ever since the county created hotspot testing, the numbers from those seven sites, which now includes Southampton, have been increasing. The county has tested 2,459 people and has positive results on 881 of the 1,868 tests for which results are known.

The number of people with coronavirus in Intensive Care Unit beds also fell by 25 to 344.

Bed capacity is approaching 70 percent, which is the target rate to reopen the economy.

Bellone is also optimistic that the county will continue to move towards the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s target of 14 straight days of declining hospitalizations from the virus. Once the county reaches that level, it can consider reopening the economy.

In the last 24 hours, 114 residents have left the hospital.

Deaths due to complications from the coronavirus continue to climb. The number of people who died in the last day from the virus was 22, bringing the total to 1,177 people.

Bellone said he doesn’t think there’s a resident of Suffolk County who hasn’t been impacted or know someone who lost a family member, friend or loved one to the disease. The county executive mourned the loss of Terri Freda, who worked in the Medical Examiner’s Office. Freda, who was a spokeswoman for the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s office in 1997 after the crash of TWA Flight 800, and her husband both lost their battle with the virus.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Terri’s family,” Bellone said.

The county will begin testing law enforcement this Monday and will administer 500 tests at Suffolk County Police Academy. Officers can register starting tomorrow.

Separately, Stony Brook University is urging residents with medical needs unrelated to COVID-19 to reach out to their doctors. People who are having cardiac issues or strokes need rapid-response medical attention, the hospital said.

In a press release, Stony Brook indicated that it has taken numerous steps to protect patients and minimize exposure to COVID-19, including: preventing crowding; adopting CDC guidelines about social distancing and protective equipment; ensuring that staff, doctors and patients are wearing masks; sanitizing facilities; and screening patients the day before their visits. Patients with symptoms of the virus are going to offices designated for COVID-19 care.

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Health care workers at Stony Brook University Hospital crowd together after the flyover April 28. Photo by Kyle Barr

Even as the emergency health care community is due for a break after an intense surge in patients who had COVID-19 finally subsides, hospitals are seeing an increase in demand for surgeries and procedures residents had put off amid the crisis.

About 10 days ago, Stony Brook University Hospital saw a rise in admissions that were unrelated to COVID-19, said Dr. Todd Griffin, the President of Medical Staff and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine.

Indeed, in the last few days, the non-COVID admissions have been higher than the COVID-driven admissions, Griffin said.

“Patients were staying at home so long” during the pandemic that some of them “had to go into the emergency room,” Griffin said.

Stony Brook had been at pandemic level D during the worst of the crisis and is now getting ready to transition to Pandemic level C, which will allow them to operate on more semi-urgent patients.

These patients either have chronic pain that needs surgical remedies, cancers that are low grade but where waiting more than 30 days could exacerbate the condition, spinal cases that, if left untreated, could lead to more permanent disabilities, or cardiac cases.

“We’re really looking at starting up semi-urgent cases first, then we’ll look at the elective cases” some time later, Griffin said.

A medical team is looking at these types of decisions, trying to determine what falls into the semi-urgent arena and what becomes more of an elective procedure.

Up until recently, the ambulatory surgery center had been acting as an Intensive Care Unit. The hospital is thoroughly cleaning that area to make sure it’s safe for reentry for the general patient population, Griffin said. They are also assessing whether they have the staff to address medical issues that extend beyond helping people battling the virus.

“We are still far from a return to business as usual,” the medical staff president said.

Stony Brook is making sure it has enough personal protective equipment. One of the challenges in preparing hospital rooms for future surgeries is that the material used to make the drapes is the same as the material for surgical masks and gowns.

“A lot of that material was diverted,” Griffin said. The hospital wants to make sure it has enough drapes to meet the medical need.

Patients coming to Stony Brook hospital will need testing for COVID-19 before they receive treatment. The hospital is also considering whether they can test visitors and how that would be done to limit exposure for everyone in the hospital.
Stony Brook Hospital is also considering testing staff and physicians. The availability of testing will determine how many tests they administer and how frequently.

Even during the pandemic, Stony Brook has still been conducting about 10 to 15 procedures per day, which is well below the 70 to 80 patients who typically received treatment.

The individual departments have remained in touch with patients throughout the coronavirus outbreak.

“Our outpatient offices have still been open,” Griffin said.

Indeed, separate from responses to COVID-19, some areas of the hospital have become even busier, including obstetrics and gynecology.

Over the last three or four weeks, the hospital has received about 80 to 100 transfer patients, which is considerably higher than the five to 10 it receives in a typical week.

Some of those patients are residents of New York City and came to Stony Brook because hospitals in other regions had stopped allowing a support person during delivery.

Additionally, Stony Brook has single bedded units in its maternity ward, which means mothers have their own room throughout the process.

“We were trying to have as normal an experience as we can in a pandemic,” Griffin said. “I am so proud of the staff and nurses during this difficult time. They created the best experience for patients possible.”

Even with the hospital scheduling some additional surgeries in the weeks ahead, however, Stony Brook will follow Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) guidance, remaining at or below 70 percent capacity in the event of another surge in demand from COVID-19.

Griffin is concerned that he will “see a second surge during the summer,” which planners are keeping in the “backs of their mind” as they add more patients to the surgery schedule.

Additionally, the medical community has spoken broadly about the combination in the fall or winter of a second wave of coronavirus at the same time as rising infections from the flu.

As the hospital prepares for more surgery patients, they will continue with procedures that protect patients and hospital staff, which includes wearing masks and more rigorous and frequent hand washing.

“Patients need to understand that if they come to Stony Brook Medicine, they are coming to a safe environment,” Griffin said. Griffin suggested that “coming to the hospital is still safer than going to the supermarket.”

Update: This article has been updated to indicate that the number of OB transfers over the last three to four weeks has been a total of 80 to 100, rather than 100 per week over that same time period. It also indicates that Stony Brook is considering whether the hospital can test visitors and how that would be done and that it is getting ready to transition to Pandemic Level C.

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Stock photo

Several weeks after viral hotspot testing sites in Suffolk County opened, the percentage of positive tests is coming back higher than for other areas.

After 1,077 people were tested in six sites, including Huntington Station and Wyandanch, 577 people tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19.

“That is definitely a lot higher than the overall number in the county, which stands at 40 percent,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on his daily conference call with reporters.

By testing in these communities, the county hopes not only to get an idea of the rate of infection in these areas, but also to communicate the importance of social distancing and isolating for people who have positive tests.

“By doing the testing, we have the direct one-on-one contact with patients and it is with Spanish speaking health professionals who can have an effective dialog,” Bellone said. The communication is “well-received by the patients.”

For some residents who live in more densely populated areas or who share a home with others who might have underlying medical conditions or whose age makes them vulnerable to the virus, the county has offered housing on a case-by-case bases, Bellone said. That has included hotels and shelters.

These situations could include people who are “coming out of a hospital where there is an issue in a home with vulnerable people,” Bellone said. “It’s not just with hotspot areas.”

Bellone also shared the results of broader testing throughout New York that Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has conducted to determine the rate of infection, which could include people who were asymptomatic or who had mild symptoms that dissipated quickly enough not to merit testing.

Based on preliminary data, Suffolk County could have about 250,000 people who have the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

If that’s the case, “that tells us that there are a huge number of people who have had the virus and didn’t know they had it,” Bellone said. A scaled up testing program to detect the presence or the virus or of antibodies, along with an aggressive contact tracing program, could enable the county to contain the virus.

That could mean that Suffolk County could “reopen our economy with protective measures in place,” Bellone said. The testing and contact tracing, which former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Johns Hopkins University committed to supporting, are “very good news,” with the caveat that the county needs to “see those full results,” Bellone added.

The number of people who tested positive in the county in the last day was 709, which means that more than 30,000 people have received positive tests for the coronavirus.

The closely-watched hospitalization number dropped again in the last day, falling by 37 to 1,340 residents. The number of people in Intensive Care Unit beds has also declined by five to 494.

For the second straight day, about 10 percent of the population of people with COVID-19, or 131 people, have been discharged from the hospital.

The death toll also continues to climb towards 1,000, with 33 people dying from complications related to COVID-19, bringing the number for the county to 959.

On the supply front, the county executive’s office distributed over 24,000 pieces of personal protective equipment yesterday. The county also received 80,000 ear loop masks from New York State.

The procurement team in Bellone’s office received 27,000 isolation gowns, which have been in short supply and high demand.

The Stony Brook University Hospital extension, which was an all-out effort as the hospitalization was climbing dramatically, is completed. The beds at the facility are not occupied.

“I don’t think there are plans right now” to use those beds, Bellone said. “We are working to prevent a second wave rom happening. We know that has happened in past pandemics.”

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Dr. Bettina Fries and her neighbor Agjah Libohova holding new face shields that will soon be put into the PPE pipeline at Stony Brook Medicine and many metro area hospitals. Photo from SBU

Her forecast calls for a better summer and a difficult fall and winter.

Bettina Fries, the Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Renaissance School of Medicine, sees improvements in the battle against COVID-19 over the next few months, and then a return of stormy weather in the winter.

There will be “much, much less cases in the summer. The reason is that people are more outside and there is less tightness together, but we have to be careful.”

Indeed, a decline in cases of COVID-19 won’t signal a victory over the virus. As the fall approaches, a second wave could exacerbate the typical arrival of the seasonal flu.

“We have a hard winter ahead of us,” Fries acknowledged. As one of several principal investigators involved in efforts to develop an effective treatment for the virus, Fries is working to mitigate the effect of the pandemic.

Fries is overseeing Stony Brook’s involvement in a trial of Regeneron’s drug Sarilumab, which blocks the binding of interleukin-6 to its receptor. The Food and Drug Administration has already approved the drug to treat juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and for the cytokine storm brought on by the treatment of acute leukemia with CAR-T cells.

The work at Stony Brook is a part of Regeneron’s tests in 50 medical centers. At this point, Fries has recruited three of the six patients who will receive the treatment.

Stony Brook is also involved in other studies of potential therapeutics. Sharon Nachman, the chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, has given Remdesivir to two patients with severe symptoms. The drug, which was developed to treat Ebola and Marburg, targets and inhibits the RNA polymerase.

Meanwhile, Elliot Bennet-Guerrero, the Medical Director for Perioperative Quality and Patient Safety for Stony Brook Medicine plans to start a clinical trial of donated, post-convalescent plasma from COVID-19 patients. This approach dates back over 100 years, when serum made from immunized animals helped treat diphtheria.

While each of these approaches could provide relief and extend the lives of people suffering from the virus, Fries doesn’t expect a return to some semblance of normal until the development of a reliable vaccine, which could take another year or more.

Fries sees a potential legal battle developing as countries race to produce a vaccine. She believes the World Health Organization is the group most likely to succeed in ensuring that any effective treatment benefits all of humanity and not just the company or country in which it originated.

“The only organization in my opinion that would be able and have international support to oversee this and make sure this vaccine becomes accessible to everyone and is not getting hung up in patent or licensing disputes is the World Health Organization,” Fries said.

Fries said she believes the international community needs to come to an agreement well before scientists develop an effective vaccine.

“We need everybody in this world to become vaccinated,” Fries said. “It’s really important before we have a vaccine that the international community starts agreeing on what we are going to do if company XYZ in South Korea has the super vaccine first.”

Fries suggested that the American withdrawal from the WHO could prove to be a costly mistake to public health and to global efforts to combat the pandemic.

“Chances are high that the Chinese or Germans or South Koreans will have a vaccine before we do,” Fries said.

As for COVID-19, Fries said the consensus for the infection rate has changed over the last few months, as the virus has spread throughout the world. Indeed, each person who gets the virus now spreads it to about 5.7 other people, which is considerably higher than the rate of between 2.2 and 2.7 researchers had expected from earlier information.

While people who have endured life-threatening symptoms can become infectious, people are generally infectious before they are symptomatic.

As states and countries consider reopening from quarantines, lockdowns and shelter-in-place mandates, Fries said the most effective approach would likely involve a modified reopening with behavioral changes.

Hospitals and urgent care centers can and have changed the way they interact with residents who come into the emergency rooms. The longer-term transition for other businesses and enterprises is more challenging.

Bringing students back to colleges remains a difficult decision that schools around the country face over the next few months, particularly amid a situation in which information about hospitalization, mortality, and testing change by the day.

Sports like swimming and tennis may be able to resume without too many public health alterations, while opera and movie theaters may be more limited in how they can entertain audiences.

Separately, many people have already altered their health care routines, avoiding practices and procedures that could extend the quality and years of their lives. People may not have gotten their chemotherapy and may have missed the chance to get bypass surgery or stents.

“There’s collateral damage we don’t even know yet,” Fries said, “That’s going to be huge.”

Even if the mortality rate is closer to 0.5 percent, the overall number of infections and hospitalizations have “hijacked” the health care system, which can lead to a lower level of care for everyone else, Fries said.

The health care system has been “completely emergency-based for the last 50 days,” Fries observed.

As the country and world approach what might be more of a summer reduction in the numbers, Fries urged ongoing vigilance, even if there are no new cases for an entire month. She suggested that governmental oversight and regulation in connection with a strong health department can help manage through the next wave of cases.

The health care system has had to conquer the seemingly intractable problem of viral deaths, such as from the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV.

COVID-19 is “very similar in the sense that there was so much despair at the beginning,” Fries said. “When you don’t have a cure, you need to attack a disease with different methods and be okay that you’re not going to cure it, but that you’re going to contain it.”

Fries urged patience as people confront the uncertainty ahead. The ongoing use of masks can help people confront the public health threat that she hopes a vaccine helps conquer.

One of the many clear lessons from this crisis, Fries said, is that those dealing with the public health threat needed to approach it with an understanding of the disruption to the supply chains, with everything from personal protective equipment shortages to ventilators in the right places to adequate staffing of doctors, nurses and other health care professionals.

The garment industry in New York is starting to make plastic coats, Fries said. “Why didn’t we start making that eight weeks ago?”

The same approach also applies to medicines. A multi-disciplinary approach using artificial intelligence could anticipate what hospitals and urgent care centers need, bringing the necessary and vital field of supply chain logistics into this enormous effort.

Ultimately, Fries expects a balance between best practices to keep people safe and the human need for interaction and full engagement professionally and socially.

“We can’t have everybody stay at home,” Fries said. “We have to find a new way of interacting and seeing each other.”
This article was amended April 24 to change the nature in which the drug Remdesivir works.
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