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.”
One number is a dot. Two numbers form a line. Three data points, all moving in the same direction is a trend. The description is a journalistic axiom, which isn’t always true even with three numbers, but it’s one County Executive Steve Bellone (D) was hoping he wouldn’t see.
After two days of small increases in hospitalizations, with a rise of four on Monday and a gain of 18 on Tuesday, Bellone was looking for the numbers would change direction.
He got his wish, and then some, as the number of hospitalizations from COVID-19 fell by 62 to 773.
The downward trend “has returned” and is a “great result today,” Bellone said on his daily conference call with reporters.
Officials at Suffolk County have been hoping to meet a number of metrics that are necessary to consider a phased reopening of the economy.
Helping to lower the number of hospitalizations was a return to the trend among patients discharged, with 85 people leaving the hospital in the last day, which is well above the numbers who returned home in the previous two days to continue their recoveries.
The county is hovering near the hospital capacity of 70 percent for overall beds and for Intensive Care Unit beds.
Hospitals admitted 43 new patients in the last day due to DOVID-19, which is above the 30 the county or lower the county is hoping to hit.
Simon Properties, the owners of locations like SmithHaven Mall in Lake Grove, had originally said in a memo dated May 6 it planned to open its New York locations, including the two listed, only a day after Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) New York Pause order expires. The company has since stated online it does not intend to open up its properties, and will comply with state and local guidelines.
Businesses like the malls will “follow executive orders, which are lawful orders,” Bellone added.
While downstate regions have not met the U.S. Centers For Disease Control requirements to open their economies, Brookhaven town is set to reopen some marinas, following limited opening of beaches last week. Marinas include Port Jefferson Harbor and Cedar Beach in Mount Sinai, amidst several others on the South Shore.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 continues to increase in the county, with 733 additional people testing positive for the virus over the last day, bringing the total to 38,985.
As of press time, Governor Cuomo’s office hadn’t updated the fatality data connected to the virus.
Testing in hotspots such as Wyananch and Huntington Station continues, with 1,097 positive tests coming back from 2,651 results, for a 41 percent positive rate, which is still above the 34.6 percent rate for the county.
Separately, Bellone, along with Suffolk County Police Department Commissioner Geraldine Hart, announced a dedicated line for phone scams, 631-852-SCAM (or 7226). Residents can report any scam attempts to this line. The phones will be staffed from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m.
“If someone is asking you to send them money, check with relatives or authorities before you do that,” Bellone cautioned.
In response to concerns raised about the potential rise in child abuse amid the lockdown, Bellone said the Department of Social Services is “aware” that situations in families that had issues before are “not going to get better in crisis situations.” He said there had been increased staffing at DSS to handle any future reports or increases.
Finally, as of yesterday, the number of police officers who have tested positive for COVID-19 was 87, with 77 of them returning to work.
*Update: Simon Properties has since said they are not reopen its New York malls come May 16. The following is what was originally included in the article.
With Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) New York Pause set to expire on May 15, Simon Properties indicated today that it planned to reopen the Walt Whitman Shops in South Huntington and the Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove.
Those high traffic malls have been mostly vacant since the start of the pandemic, while Simon Properties list multiple COVID safety protocols, including preemptive employee screening, occupancy limitations and monitoring while encouraging social distancing, officials were not ready to give the malls the green light.
“All indications are that there will be some extension” in New York Pause, at least for Suffolk County, Bellone said. He anticipates a phased reopening may start sooner in upstate New York, which hasn’t been hit as hard as New York City and Long Island.
Businesses like the malls will “follow executive orders, which are lawful orders,” Bellone added.*
Richard Hoey’s son Kevin lives in a Central Islip residential home, and he said its high time facilities like his son’s receives targeted testing. Photo from Hoey
Port Jefferson resident Richard Hoey’s son Kevin lives in a Central Islip residential home for the developmentally disabled. Kevin is diagnosed as intellectually disabled with Down syndrome, autism, behavioral disorders and is developmentally delayed. His mobility is confined to a wheelchair. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, 21-year-old Kevin has been largely confined to the facility. Family has only been able to communicate with their son via video chat, in which Hoey said Kevin’s attention span is “minimal.”
“Kids in residential homes, they are all not able to protect themselves.”
— Richard Hoey
“Look to see him, he doesn’t recognize inside that little square TV screen,” Hoey said.
The issue, the parent said, is simply not knowing. Though he said the facility, Eaton Knolls, one run by United Cerebral Palsy of Long Island, has largely been communicative of current goings-on, two staff and one resident have tested positive for the virus. Though staff has been wearing personal protective equipment, they have been “low on the totem pole” in receiving masks and gloves.
“Kids in residential homes, they are all not able to protect themselves,” Hoey said. “They have no idea the dangers with sneezing, coughing or licking things. And they’ll never have any idea about it.”
The Port Jeff resident and his family have created a Change.org petition saying that Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) should take similar action to Massachusetts and mandate testing at long-term care facilities, such as residential, veteran and nursing homes, for all staff and residents.
The petition, change.org/p/andrew-m-cuomo-save-my-son-s-life-new-york-group-homes-need-mandatory-covid-19-testing, has already raised over 1,000 signatures since it started Friday, May 1.
The site is operated through the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, which sets the rules and regulations for facilities such as UCPLI.
Camille Schramm, the director of development and public relations for UCPLI, said her company, which was mandated to close every service except for the residential homes since March 17, has struggled to get their hands on the necessary PPE. Through donations and requisitions they’ve managed to procure enough masks and gloves for now, but they have struggled to receive the necessary number of gowns.
Otherwise, facilities like hers “should be in the top 10” of long-term care organizations that need targeted testing. Residents cannot simply go to the local pharmacy to get tested, a plan the governor said is currently in the works. Many have major communication problems and mobility issues. Many are confined to wheelchairs.
UCP would not release the number of people at their 31 facilities who have tested positive for the virus, citing resident and family confidentiality, though she said they have fared better than others in the field.
“We’ve been hit, but not as hard as some of the other agencies on the Island due to the safety protocols and precautions we have in place,” Schramm said.
Currently, the policy for staff who present symptoms isthat they are sent home for at least two weeks and they require a doctor’s note to be allowed back in. After learning of a positive case, UCPLI brought in a company to clean and sanitize the facility, which Schramm said is “costly, especially considering the number of homes we have.”
For residents that start to show symptoms, they are self-isolated in their rooms. Though if they start to display problems with breathing, they are sent to hospitals where many remain because many also have compromised immunities.
“They are part of an underserved demographic population that are very challenged by something like this,” Schramm said.
At the end of March, Massachusetts deployed National Guard technicians to long-term care facilities to attempt to test all workers and residents across the state, though things have only ramped up since then. After an April 27 $130,000 state funding plan, the National Guard has completed more than 28,000 tests at 525 care facilities in Massachusetts, according to The Boston Globe. Though the Bay State is ranked 10th in overall nursing home population, currently New York is ranked at the top with over 101,000 patients.
The OPWDD issued a statement saying testing is being prioritized for people receiving supports from OPWDD or service providers who display symptoms, adding that the state “continues to expand testing opportunities as new tests and locations become available.”
“OPWDD is taking the threat of COVID-19 to the people we support and the broader community very seriously and has activated our emergency response team to closely monitor all reports of possible contact within our system across the state,” the statement read. “All staff are fully trained on infection control practices and OPWDD has released guidance to staff and voluntary provider agencies regarding visitation, PPE use and quarantine protocols at our facilities. OPWDD monitors levels of PPE in all of our community residences, both state and provider operated, and has created a 24-hour emergency services number for providers and staff to contact when issues arise.”
Residential facilities, mostly nursing homes of adult care facilities, have come under severe scrutiny since it was revealed a huge portion of COVID-19-related deaths have come from these places that house some of the most at-risk populations. As of May 5, New York State reported nearly 20 percent, or 4,813 deaths, in New York have come from these locations. Suffolk County has suffered 593, but many suspect COVID-19 deaths have gone unreported at these locations, and deaths may be even higher.
Hoey said targeted testing is the best way to stymie the growing number of deaths at these facilities.
“That will knock down the death rates,” he said. “The only reason [Cuomo is] not doing it because there’s no pressure for him to do this. “
Despite the worrisome sign that net hospitalizations rose for a second straight day in Suffolk County, the area has still met one of the qualifications for a phased reopening.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that hospitals in an area have a three-day moving average where the number of hospitalizations from COVID-19 declines.
Over the last day, the number of hospitalizations from the coronavirus rose by 18, after inching up by four on Monday, bringing the total to 835 people. The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 on Sunday had declined by 38, which means the three day moving average was a decline of over five people.
“The fact that we’ve had two days in a row of increasing hospitalizations is definitely something I’m concerned about,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on his daily conference call with reporters. He doesn’t “want to see that trend continuing.”
For the second consecutive day as well, the number of people who were discharged from the hospital increased at a slower pace than it had in the last few weeks, with 37 people heading home to continue their recovery.
“Is this an indication that the people that are in the hospitals, which would be common sense, are people who are more sick?” Bellone said. He suggested that would be “logical,” although he doesn’t have any specific indication behind the numbers about why the net hospitalizations have climbed amid conspicuously lower discharges.
While Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has discussed a phased reopening of the state on May 15, when New York Pause ends, the decision of when to open different regions will depend on the data from those area. Upstate, for example, hasn’t been hit as hard as downstate areas like Nassau and Suffolk County.
“We are doing the work to prepare for that reopening downstate,” Bellone said. While the county executive is hopeful Suffolk County could open as soon as possible, he said the county would have to hit a range of metrics to make that possible.
These measures include a 70 percent or lower use of hospital beds, which is about where the county stands now. That, however, does not include elective surgeries, which, once they start picking up again, will require some hospital bed usage.
Additionally, the number of new hospitalizations in Suffolk County will need to be 30 or lower based on a three-day rolling average. Over the last 24 hours, the number of new hospitalizations from COVID-19 was 50.
“We’re not there yet,” Bellone said.
Amid ongoing testing throughout the county, including in seven hotspot testing sites, the number of new positive tests climbed to 715 to 38,252. The percentage of positive tests is 34.6 percent.
On the positive side, the number of people in the Intensive Care Unit declined by seven, as the number of intubations also fell.
“That’s a very good sign,” Bellone said.
The number of people who have died from complications related to coronavirus climbed by 23, bringing the total to 1,296.
“We know the terrible grief and tragedies that this virus has wrought upon our community,” Bellone said, as residents “haven’t been able to grieve in the way we are accustomed to as a community.”
The American Red Cross is providing crisis counselors who can work with families, supplying emotional and spiritual support.
Residents who would like to receive confidential help can log in to www.redcross.org/nyscovidfamilysupport where they will fill out a nine-question form. Alternatively, residents can call 585-957-8187.
Bellone said New York State and Northwell Health tested 700 police officers yesterday at the Suffolk County Police Academy for the presence of antibodies to the virus.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said the police would use the information to track the location of positive cases to see if there are hotspots within the department.
Finally, Bellone is launching a new space on the county site where residents can share positive stories, at www.suffolkcountyny.gov/dashboardofhope. He is encouraging people to share positive stories about teachers this week, during National Teacher’s Week. Residents can share good news or can link to facebook, twitter, or videos.
A blood sample with respiratory coronavirus positive. Stock photo
Even as Suffolk County moves closer every day to the possibility of restarting the economy and reopening shuttered businesses amid a steady decline in hospitalizations from COVID-19, the number of positive tests for the county as a hole and for hotspot testing sites for the virus continue to increase.
In the last 24 hours, 889 people tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total who have tested positive for the virus that has caused the pandemic to reach 36,974, bringing the total above the number of confirmed cases for Switzerland and about 44 percent of the number of confirmed cases out of China, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The number of positive tests “should be a little bit of a wake up call for people,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on a conference call with reporters. “We know the margin for error in the rate of transmission is not great.”
Indeed, the county executive said the transmission rate for each positive test is about 0.75. If the county rises to 1.1 on the rate of transmission – meaning each infected person passes along the virus to more than one other person – the virus could “spread out of control,” Bellone said. “We don’t have a lot of room to spare in these numbers.”
Bellone urged Suffolk County residents to understand that reopening “has to be done right.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said during his daily press briefing today that he will work to figure out what is causing the new infections, which would enable a more targeted approach to protecting the population, Bellone suggested.
As New York starts the seventh week of the governor’s New York Pause tonight, the number of people who have died in Suffolk County continues to climb. Over the last day, 29 people have died from complications related to Covid-19, bringing the total number of fatalities in the county to 1,256.
“There is not a person in Suffolk County who hasn’t been either directly impacted or knows somebody who has been affected,” Bellone said.
On the positive front, the number of hospitalizations continues its steady decline, with a reduction of 38 residents in the last day, bringing the total to 813. That is a decline of close to 51 percent from the highest coronavirus hospitalizations, which the county reached April 10. If the numbers decline over the next two days, Suffolk County will have reached 14 consecutive days where the net number of hospitalizations from the virus came down. That would meet the guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to start a phased reopening of the economy.
The number of people in Intensive Care Units also declined by three, to 324.
As of today, the number of people in hospital beds and in the intensive care units hovered around 70 percent, which is also a targeted figure from the CDC for reopening, as the health agency would like hospitals to have enough room for any future increase in admissions if the infection rate increases in the fall or winter.
In hotspot testing sites, the number of positive tests was 1,038 out of close to 2,400 results, which brings the positive rate of testing to 43.2 percent. That is still above the rate of 35.3 percent for the rest of the county, but it is a narrowing of the gap, Bellone said.
Bellone’s office distributed 24,000 personal protective equipment yesterday, bringing the total to 3.2 million since the crisis began. Yesterday, the county received 6,250 Tyvec Coveralls from the Federal Emergency Management Association.
As the warmer weather reaches Long Island, the Suffolk County Police Department continues to monitor the activity of people who have been cooped up indoors for weeks, cooking meals, cleaning their homes, and taking care of their children and, to the extent they can, continuing to manage their jobs.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said the volume is up in the parks and outside in general. “Overwhelmingly, people are in compliance” with social distancing guidelines, Hart said. “We’re hoping that’s what we’re going to see moving forward.”
Hart said the police will also continue to monitor any demonstrations in reaction to New York Pause, which is scheduled to end on May 15. She said if the police saw opportunities to provide face coverings to protestors or to remind them to maintain social distancing, the officers would do that.
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
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.
Suffolk's own data shows areas with large numbers of black and latino populations have been impacted greatly by the ongoing pandemic. Photo screenshot from Suffolk data map
Black and Latino communities have been disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, and on Long Island where communities are as segregated as they are, much of it comes down to geography.
COVID-19 cases in Suffolk County have an identifiable curve. Data on maps provided by Suffolk County show a darkening red on a path rolling from the eastern end of the Island toward the west, homing in on the western center of the Island — Wyandanch, Brentwood and Huntington Station. In such areas, data also shows, is also where many minority communities live.
Suffolk County health services commissioner Gregson Pigott shares COVID facts in Spanish online April 8. Photo from Facebook video
Data from New York State’s Department of Health maps shows the coronavirus has disproportionately harmed black and Latino communities. Brentwood in particular has shown 3,473 cases, or nearly 55 per 1,000 persons. New York State Education Department data shows the Brentwood school district, as just an example, is nearly 85 percent Latino and almost 10 percent black. Huntington Station, another example of a location with large black and Latino populations, has just over 1,000 cases, or 33 persons per 1,00 have the virus. As testing continues, those numbers continue to grow.
Though data showing the numbers of COVID-19 deaths is out of date, numbers from New York’s Covid tracker website show the percent of black residents who died from the virus was 12 percent, higher than the 8 percent share of the overall Suffolk population. For Latino residents, the fatality percent was 14 percent, lower than their population of 19 percent.
While whites make up 81 percent of the population, their proportion of residents confirmed with the virus is only 64 percent. If the white population were suffering the same proportionate death ratio higher than their overall population, then dozens more white people would have already perished from COVID-19.
“I’m not surprised by the information given,” said Brookhaven town Councilwoman Valerie Cartright (D-Port Jefferson Station). “We need to be testing as much as possible, we need to be tracing, we need to make sure once we get that under control, we need to make sure people get treated.”
The COVID Hot Zones
Toward the beginning of April, Suffolk County established three “hot spot” testing centers in Wyandanch, Brentwood and Huntington. Those sites quickly established a higher rate of positive cases compared to the county’s other sites, especially the testing center at Stony Brook University. A little more than a week ago, such hot spot sites were showing 53 percent of those tested were positive. On Tuesday, April 29, that number dropped slightly to 48 percent hot spot positive tests compared to 38 percent for the rest of the county.
Though such testing centers didn’t arrive until more than a month into the crisis, county leadership said plans for such sites developed as data slowly showed where peak cases were.
“When we started working with the IT department to find the addresses where these cases were, Southold was leading,” said Dr. Gregson Pigott, the Suffolk Department of Health Services commissioner. “Then Huntington Station became the hot spot. Then Brentwood became the leader in cases, and to this day Brentwood has the most cases.”
Suffolk County has also started plans for recovery after things finally start to open up. The Recovery Task Force is being headed by multiple partners, including Vanessa Baird Streeter, an assistant deputy county executive.
The task force will need to provide aid, but Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said there needs to be emphasis on addressing the glaring inequities, and put an emphasis on “coming back stronger.”
“There’s no question the issue is we know there have been disparities,” he said. “The crisis like this is only going to exacerbate those issues and have those disparities grow.”
But as it became clear to officials the virus was greatly impacting the majority of minority communities harder than others, said communities were watching day by day how the virus was upending lives, infecting whole households and leaving many without any chance of providing for their families.
Latino Community During Coronavirus
Martha Maffei, the executive director for Latino and immigrant advocacy group SEPA Mujer, said Latino communities are hit so hard especially because of many people’s employment. Either they were effectively let go, or they are working in jobs that if they tried to take time off, they would be out of a job. Instead, such workers, even in what has already been deemed “nonessential business,” are still going to work even in places where workers have already gotten sick.
“We were receiving calls of jobs they know the workplace has been infected, they continue to ask employees to come to work,” she said. “They don’t have the option to say no, because they’re basically forcing them and they don’t want to lose their jobs.”
A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in early April found approximately 41 percent of Latinos have lost their jobs since the start of the pandemic, compared to just 24 percent white and 32 blacks being laid off or furloughed. This jives with research showing about 50 percent of people on the lower income scale have either lost their job or had to take a pay cut.
Many who relied on their jobs to support their families have now lost them completely, and since many are undocumented, they have no access to any kind of federal assistance. In homes that are often multigenerational and cramped, workers out on the front lines come home and have very little means of sequestering themselves.
SEPA Mujer shows their support for immigrants by donning yellow bracelets. File photo by Sara-Megan Walsh
SEPA Mujer also advocates for women in violent domestic situations, and Maffei said its crisis hotline phone has been ringing daily. Bellone has told reporters the incidents of domestic violence are up 3.5 percent from early to mid April.
At issue is the immigrant community’s trust in local government and law enforcement, and that same government’s ability to get the life-saving and virus-mitigating information to them.
The hot spot testing centers now include Spanish-speaking translators, at least one per each, according to Pigott. Bellone also announced, working with nonprofits Island Harvest and Long Island Cares, they are providing food assistance to visitors at the testing sites. Brentwood is already seeing those activities, and Wyandanch will also start providing food April 30.
When the first hot spot site opened in Huntington Station, Maffei said she had clients who were struggling to schedule an appointment. Though she suspects it has gotten better with more sites opening up in western Suffolk, true help to the community should come in the form of facilitating access to information.
“We’re trying to do the best we can, but a lot of people don’t have access to the internet, don’t have Facebook,” Maffei said.
Pigott related the county is providing multi-language information via their website and brochures at the testing sites, but community advocates argue there is a demand for such details of where people can get tested and how they can prevent infection, straight into the hands of people, possibly through mailings or other mass outreach.
Why Minority Communities are Vulnerable
Medical and social scientists, in asking the first and likely most important question, “why?” said the historic inequities in majority minority populations are only exacerbated by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Dr. Johanna Martinez, a physician with Northwell, is in the midst of helping conduct a research project to work out the variables that are leading to how the pandemic has deepened and exacerbated existing inequities.
“It’s not something biological that is different between black and Latino people. It really is the historical inequities, like racism, that has led to the patients being marginalized,” Martinez said. “It is most closely linked to social determinants.”
The links are plain, she said, in socioeconomic status, and perhaps most importantly, one’s access to health care. Immigrant communities are especially likely to lack insurance and easy communication with doctors. It’s hard for one to know if one’s symptoms should necessitate a hospital visit if one also doesn’t have a doctor within phone’s reach. It also means an increased spread of the virus and a potential increased load on hospitals.
“If you’re uninsured, the place where you’re going to get health care from is the emergency room,” the Northwell doctor said. “Right now, we’re trying to use telemedicine, but if you don’t have an established primary care doctor, you don’t have the ability to speak to the doctor of the symptoms you’re having and if this is something you can stay home for or go to the hospital.”
Current data released by New York State has mostly been determining age, as its well-known vulnerable people include the elderly, but Martinez’ data is adjusting for other things like comorbidities. Data shows that diabetes, hypertension and obesity put one at a higher risk for COVID-19-related death, and studies have shown poorer or communities of people of color are at higher risk for such diseases.
“It’s almost like a double whammy,” she said. “It’s something that makes them even more vulnerable to a very serious disease.”
“It’s not something biological that is different between black and Latino people. It really is the historical inequities, like racism, that has led to the patients being marginalized.”
— Dr. Johanna Martinez
Housing is also a factor. Once one leaves the hospital, or on recommendation from a doctor, it’s easy to tell people who are showing symptoms to isolate a certain part of the house, but for a large family living in a relatively small space, that might just be impossible.
Whether Suffolk’s numbers detailing the number of confirmed COVID patients is accurate, Martinez said she doubts it, especially looking at nationally. Newsday recently reported, upon looking at towns’ death certificates compared to New York’s details on fatalities, there could be many more COVID deaths than currently thought.
“We need more testing to see the prevalence in certain communities,” she said.
Cartright, who works as a civil rights attorney, said these factors are what the government should be looking at as the initial wave of COVID-19 patients overall declines.
“We know black people are dying at a disproportionate rate,” she said. “We need to look at how many people are living in the same household, how many people actually have health care, how many are undocumented who were scared of going to the emergency room. There are so many factors we need to be able to take a look at.”
Junior attack Xavier Arline drives to the cage for the Wildcats in the Suffolk Class C county final against Mount Sinai last year. With spring season cancelled, there will be no chance for a rematch. File photo by Bill Landon
High School seniors are normally under a lot of pressure come their last year of classes. It’s a time where students have to be thinking about where they want to go after graduation, what they want to do, all mixed in with a sense of finality to their grade school careers. For students involved in sports, it means the last season and the last chance they will have to take their team to county championships or maybe even states.
Ward Melville second baseman Matt Maurer makes the scoop in a League I matchup against Central Islip last year. The team was hoping for even better this year, before the spring season was cancelled. File photo by Bill Landon
Then on April 22, Section XI made the announcement cancelling the spring sports season.
“After much discussion and consideration, the Athletic Council of Suffolk County has voted unanimously to cancel the spring sports season for 2020 at all levels,” Tom Combs, the Section XI executive director wrote in a statement. “The decision was not an easy one to make, however in what the world is experiencing at this time, it is the most prudent decision to make.”
With the cancellation of the spring sports season due to the ongoing pandemic, those same students now see any hopes of making it to playoffs dashed. Some teams, like the Ward Melville baseball team, might have been looking at their best season yet after making it to Suffolk County championships last year.
“Though we lost in the Suffolk County championship, the juniors were a big reason why they got there in the first place,” said Ward Melville baseball coach Lou Petrucci. “When we heard the news I talked to all the captains, and we talked to the seniors and juniors. They’re upset, but the spin we have to put on it is every time you play a baseball team you have to play it like it’s your last.”
Scott Reh, the Mount Sinai director of athletics, echoed the sentiment that the decision is going to most impact seniors, who he said the decision was “totally out of their control.” Though he and other athletic directors understood why it was done.
“At the end of the day, it’s very important because people are losing their lives, their jobs and the list goes on and on, “ Reh said.
Mount Sinai girls lacrosse head coach Al Bertolone said his team has been “training every day since school closed,” and that he hosts video meetings with the team and individual groups daily.
Though the news was hard, Bertolone said they had already participated in a car parade that ran past Mather and St Charles hospitals, which included the entire varsity team, parents, a fire truck, local police and some alumni as well.
“As far as we are concerned the games might have been canceled but our team is still going strong,” he said.
They are planning another car parade for Senior Day, May 14.
Charles Delargey, the director of PE, health and athletics at the Rocky Point school district, said the girls lacrosse team hosted a senior parade for their 10 seniors last Saturday, and the boys lacrosse has plans to do something similar this weekend.
Mount Sinai sophomore, then freshman Mackenzie Celauro slides home in game last year. File photo by Bill Landon
At 8:20 (20:20 military time) on Friday, May 1, districts will be turning on the lights and score board of their school football fields. The event is supposed to celebrate the sports teams in their 2020 season, with several schools planning live streams including comments from coaches.
In addition to several videos that coaches and students have put together, homes throughout the Shoreham-Wading River Central School District are displaying ‘Home of a Wildcat Senior 2020’ lawn signs to share in the school spirit. The district is also promoting the NYSPHSAA Mental Health Awareness Week from May 4-8 with social media messages. Plans are also in progress to honor all athletes at the annual athletic awards event which will be held virtually in the coming weeks.
“Our coaches are in contact with our athletes to help to maintain optimistic attitudes and keep physically active during this time,” said SWR Director of Physical Education, Health, Athletics and Nurses Mark Passamonte.
School sports directors have been doing their best to keep spirits high. Adam Sherrard, the Port Jefferson School District athletic director, shared a video to his Twitter showcasing baseball players practicing, intercutting the video so it seemed the players were tossing the ball to each other.
Port Jeff is planning to host its regular sports ceremonies, including pictures of seniors in their uniforms in May and the signing ceremonies in June, but this time having to bring up each player individually for photos.
Indeed, practicing at home has become the new norm. Players have taken videos and pictures of themselves in their workouts and practices and posted such things to their coaches and teammates in phone messages and online.
Still, many students mourn the loss of their lost season — for some their last. As the bearer of bad news, coaches have done their best to offer consolation and hope for the future.
Matt DeVincenzo, the athletic director at Comsewogue School District, helped craft a video that was released Friday, April 24, on the district’s Facebook going through all the spring sports teams and specifically mentioning the graduating players, thanking them for all their hard work.
“Everyone’s pretty devastated,” DeVincenzo said. “Everyone saw the writing on the wall, and all the kids are affected, but our hearts really go out to the senior class. Unfortunately, they were robbed of last season in high school.”
Port Jefferson senior Aidan Kaminski, then a junior, looks for an open lane last year during the Class D county final. He will not be able to finish his final senior season. File photo by Bill Landon
The unanimous decision from the Section XI board was a tough one, DeVincenzo said, but all acknowledged the impossibility of hosting sports during the ongoing pandemic.
But beyond the spring season, many still question what will happen in the summer, fall and winter.All agree it’s still too early to tell.
For students participating in college sports, the National College Athletic Association said students graduating in spring will be eligible for collegiate scholarships as long as they still meet the course number requirements and show a 2.3 or higher GPA in those courses. The NCAA’s evaluations will not look at separate reviews of spring or summer distance learning during COVID-19 closures.
The question whether the coronavirus will impact sports in summer and fall is still up in the air, but with coaches not even aware if students will be back in school by the end of May, that question is leaning heavy on the minds of school athletics. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said April 24 he would later be announcing whether schools would remain closed, but as of press time has not yet made the decision.
Delargey said when the news arrived last week, students were of course disappointed. On the other end, it was also a showcase of how students can show compassion.
“On a call with the softball team where the coach broke the news, after everyone spoke, one of our youngest kids on the team said to the seniors, ‘just want to let you know what an inspiration you’ve been to me.’” he said. “For a young kid to do that that’s amazing says what sports is all about.”
If the trend continues through Monday, Suffolk County will be within the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines for reopening the economy.
Additionally, the county’s hospitalization rate is also around Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) targeted 70 percent or lower goal, creating health care flexibility in the event of an increase in the incidence of COVID-19.
With Cuomo’s New York Pause set to end on May 15, County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said he would continue to discuss ways to restart part of the local economy.
“We are looking at a number of different guideposts for how we reopen and when it makes sense to reopen,” Bellone said on his daily conference call with reporters.
Bellone hopes to have contract tracing and sufficient testing in place to reopen the economy in a safe way. Another target is to keep the rate of transmission per infected individual below one.
“If that gets to 1.1, we are looking at this virus spreading once again,” Bellone said. A worst case scenario would be if the government reopened the economy and then needed to reinstate restrictions, which would cause emotional, psychological and economic devastation, the county executive said.
Bellone indicated that a summer working group, led by Deputy County Executive Jon Kaiman, would likely have guidelines as early as next week for beaches, pools and other facilities.
The summer is “going to be different,” Bellone said. “It’s not back to where we were.”
The number of people infected over the last day continued to rise, climbing 661 to 34,079.
The number of residents in Suffolk County hospitals fell by 35 to 1,047, while the number of people in the Intensive Care Unit also declined 35, to 369.
With hospitals at 74 percent capacity and ICU beds at 69 percent, the county is “right around the numbers where the state says you need to be to reopen the economy in a safe way,” Bellone said.
The number of people who left the hospital rose by 111.
The death rate from complications related to coronavirus continued to climb, as 24 people died over the last day, bringing the total deaths to 1,155.
Separately, Bellone, U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY-1) and former National Football League player Gary Brown will host a discussion for veterans tomorrow night at 5:30 p.m. People who would like to listen to the town hall can tune in on facebook live, at facebook.com/SteveBellone.
The six hotspot testing sites had conducted close to 3,000 tests, with 818 positive tests amid the 1,741 with results. That rate is 47 percent, which is slightly lower than yesterday, but still well above the 37 percent for other testing locations. As Bellone announced yesterday, the county is opening another hotspot in Southampton tomorrow.
Bellone said his office has now distributed over 3 million pieces of personal protective equipment. He thanked federal and state governments for their delivery of supplies, which included 600,000 ear loop masks, 843,000 gloves and 42,000 face shields over the last day.
The county executive highlighted the recent donation of 50,000 surgical masks by the Greater New York Automobile Dealer’s Association, which is a part of the association’s effort to distribute half a million surgical masks to counties in the downstate area.
In the Suffolk County Police Department, 86 officers have tested positive and 72 have returned to work.
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