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St. Charles Hospital in Port Jeff plays "Here Comes the Sun" every time a patient is discharged during the coronavirus pandemic. Photo by Kyle Barr

St. Charles Hospital ICU nurse Kacey McIntee, walking through the halls of a hospital in the midst of a pandemic, is just one of  scores of RNs who have watched their world flip the wrong way around. 

Where once the hospital had one Intensive Care Unit, now it has three. Every time she gets to work, she slips into hospital-issued scrubs and she’s assigned to one of the three units. Every single bed is housing a patient on a ventilator, nearly 40 in all. She’s bedecked in a mask, hair covering and face shield. 

Nursing Assistant Martha Munoz is working at St. Charles Hospital during the pandemic

Typically, the ratio is two ICU patients to one ICU nurse. However, now there are cases where she cares for up to three patients, alongside a helper nurse. She starts her day by looking at her assigned patients’ charts, and then spends the rest of her 12-hour shift doing her best to keep these patients, many in such dire straits, alive.

“A lot of times you can kind of expect something is going to go bad just based on blood values alone,” she said. “We mentally prepare ourselves for the worst-case scenario with our patients.”

It’s a common story among many medical centers, but local hospitals St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown and Port Jefferson’s St. Charles, both in the Catholic Health Services system, have been on the front lines of fighting the virus for longer than others, having seen their first COVID-19 positive patients March 8.

Jacquelina VandenAkker, a 33-year veteran respiratory therapist at St. Charles and Port Jeff resident, said while the past week has shown what seems to be a plateauing in the number of new cases, the first 10 days of the virus “was hell. You didn’t know the end of it.”

“We felt it was literally such a war zone. You knew you could be a victim to it because you don’t understand it,” she said. 

Hospital officials confirmed there were a number of staff who have contracted COVID-19, but declined to release the number of employees  who have been infected, citing that staff did not want it known if they’ve been previously infected. 

“We see a lot of deaths,” the respiratory therapist said. “I take the same unit. I know my patients. We start to understand the disease a lot more.”

McIntee, a Sound Beach resident, knows the pain and suffering of the COVID-19 patients suffering. It’s hard not to become entangled in the lives of these people, knowing the pain of suffering when the family can only communicate via tablet computer and online video chats.

“Nurses are really, really good at coping mechanisms,” she said. “One of the most useful ones is humor and the other is detachment. We cannot picture our loved ones in the bed — if we hear that one of our loved ones is sick with COVID, all bets are off, we are a mess.”

When it comes to that, when what has universally been the once inconceivable is happening moment to moment, McIntee said they rely on their fellow nurses.

“It’s almost as if we’re all in war together, and we have this bond for life that we will always be connected together, that we had these experiences that really nobody else in the world can experience except during this time,” she said.

The Initial Wave and Beyond

Jim O’Connor, the president of St. Charles and chief administrative officer of St. Catherine of Siena, said hospitals faced initial difficulties but hope things continue to look up. 

“Both St. Charles and St. Catherine had their first COVID-19 patient on the same day,” he said. “We struggled to keep up with it and the personal protective equipment we needed in that first week. Thankfully we seem to have gotten our sea legs.”

Dr. Jeffrey Wheeler, the director of St. Charles Hospital Emergency Department

Only about 25 percent of patients who are diagnosed require hospitalization, but of that 25 percent, 50 percent require ICU care, and many of them require a ventilator, O’Connor said.

Even before Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) mandates shutting down all essential businesses, hospital admin said they saw what they call a “surge” of patients. 

Bonnie Morales, the director of infection prevention for St. Catherine, said she and other specialists at hospitals around Long Island had started preparing for the “what ifs” a few weeks before it finally came, but even then, it was hard to estimate just how much it would overtake the entire health care system. 

“I would have to say we were prepared, but that line list [of staff procedures] I went back to in the beginning, has grown from a page to three pages long,” she said.

The precautions for reducing infections became one of the most supreme considerations with both patients and staff, she said. Morales, a Selden resident, said the average patient on “transmission-based precautions” which were before only meant to help patients and staff avoid contact, has now gone from 20 to 30, up to over 100 that are currently on these transmission-based precautions because of the virus.

The hospitals had what the admin called a surge plan, but as the St. Charles president put it, “a man plans, and God laughs.” Learning just how many beds they would have to increase to was staggering, but he thanked the admin team who worked with barely little notice to start the process of acquiring more beds and space.

After Cuomo announced an executive order mandating hospitals increase their bed capacity by at least 50 percent, St. Charles and St. Catherine have boosted the number of beds to 243 in St. Charles and 296 beds at St. Catherine.

Mike Silverman, the COO at St. Catherine, said early on the hospitals decided to close access to the public. It was something that was unpopular to start, but in hindsight has been a smart decision.

Silverman only joined the hospital little more than two months ago and has had a trial by fire in the truest sense of the phrase.

“I don’t think anybody thought this was going to happen,” he said. “There was no playbook for this … It’s a lot of people doing what needs to be done,” he said.

O’Connor said the hospitals hit a high in the number of patients in the previous weeks, but since they have been climbing, inch by strenuous inch, off of that peak. Since the start of the outbreak, St. Charles has gone from eight ventilators to nearly 37 at peak. St. Catherine had 35 at peak. Each hospital has transformed its space to accommodate the massive number of critical patients by creating two new ICUs in each. All elective surgeries have been suspended and those workers have been moved to aid COVID-19 patients. 

“There’s definitely some angst,” Silverman said. “We know how many people are dying in the state, and we would see this many deaths in a week. It’s tough, whether it’s at work, whether its friends or friends’ families.”

Michelle Pekar, in purple scrubs, is part of the St. Charles Emergency Department. Photo by Marilyn Fabbricante

Both admin and health staff agreed the community has done an incredible amount of support for the health care workers. There have been consistent donations of meals, snacks and drinks. There have been a rollout of homemade masks and PPE supplies as well, along with cards and notes thanking the health care workers for all they do.

Still, to say it hasn’t taken an emotional toll would be wrong.

“It has been very tough on the staff because there is a very high mortality rate for people on ventilators,” O’Connor said. “What compounds it we weren’t allowed to have visitors so that really adds a whole different isolation for the patient and the families.”

The hospital has been using tablet computers to connect patients with family members at home, but it has also meant having to give them difficult news about those family members remotely.

“They have their own fears understandably about it. They have their own families they go home to that they worry about spreading it to,” he said. “I give them so much credit for them to put themselves at risk to be in a room with someone with a contagious disease.”

There have been moments of hope throughout the day in between the darkness. Every time a patient comes off a ventilator, the hospital plays “Breathe” by Faith Hill over the loudspeaker. When a patient is dismissed from the hospital, they then play the classic Beatles song “Here Comes the Sun.”

Hospitals’ PPE

O’Connor said the hospitals sterilize the PPE used by hospital workers at the end of each shift, and after the N95 is used three times then it is discarded, though if it becomes “soiled or contaminated” then it is discarded before that. Normally, such masks are not designed to be reused, but with supplies tight, hospitals and other medical centers have been looking to get as much use out of equipment as possible.

Susie Owens of St. Charles Hospital delivered a special message to her colleagues in chalk. Photo from St. Charles Facebook

“We know it is not a perfect system,” O’Connor said. “Nobody expected to have this patient volume, but I think we’ve done a good job, but is it perfect? No.”

The federal Office of Emergency Management has added to supplies, along with donations from companies and other local individuals. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has made guidelines for decontaminating such equipment, and hospital administration said they are following those guidelines. Catholic health systems announced earlier this month they had created an ultraviolet light sterilization system for masks in CHS hospitals.

The New York State Nurses Association has taken issue with the hospital’s practice of reusing such PPE as N95 masks after they’ve been sterilized. The union points to mask manufacturer 3M, who said there were no disinfection methods that would kill the virus and maintain effectiveness, though the CDC’s website cites numerous sources related to the positive results of disinfecting such masks.

Though a union representative could not be reached by press time, nurse representatives have spoken to other news outlets saying that both hospitals lacked PPE supplies, and that unlike systems, nurses in St. Charles and St. Catherine were made to wear gowns for an entire shift that are meant to be disposed of after one patient encounter.

McIntee said at the start of the pandemic, things were confused with PPE, with the CDC changing its guidelines constantly. Regarding gowns, she said hospital workers have a choice, they can either spray down reusable gowns with a cleaning solution in between patients, use disposable blue/plastic gowns, or the so-called bunny suits, the full-body white suits with a hood. With face shields, there are no other choices than rinsing it with solution.

Now, McIntee said if a worker wears an N95 mask continuously throughout the day in a 12-hour shift, they can discard them. If they wear them intermittently throughout the day, then they are bagged and sent to be sterilized at night. Sterilized masks then can be worn intermittently three more days before they are discarded.

“Not once have I ever had an issue with the N95 masks being told ‘no, you can’t have one,’” she said. “I’ve always been able to have access to any PPE I wanted … Now I think we have a system down, and it’s less anxiety.”

St. Catherine April 22 accepted a donation of gowns and masks from the Kings Park Chamber of Commerce, and Morales said the bevy of donations they have received have truly helped in the fight against COVID-19. The hospital has received donations of tie back and bunny suits.

Regarding St. Catherine staff reusing gowns, Morales said “We are giving out supplies for the staff to utilize and they have what they need in order to take care of their patients.”

O’Connor said the hospitals have been doing multiple things to aid the front line workers, including bringing in agency staff and repurposing staff from outpatient to inpatient services to add more hands on deck. The hospitals have developed quiet rooms for staff to catch their breath, and Silverman said St. Catherine has a service where staff can purchase basic items, they have little time to get from working long days during the pandemic. 

“It would be very foolish for us to not keep our staff safe,” O’Connor said. “Why would we possibly not be doing anything we can to keep them safe?”

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Photo courtesy of The Heckscher Museum of Art

The Heckscher Museum of Art’s board of trustees and staff join me in wishing you good health and hope you remain in good spirits during these challenging times.

Like many cultural organizations across Long Island, and around the world, the museum has found new ways to engage the community.

Although the museum is physically closed, the new Heckscher.org is a vibrant resource full of wonderful art experiences. Through the “Heckscher at Home” initiative, virtual exhibitions, fun Kids Edition video art projects, and additional ways to interact are at your fingertips. I invite you to browse Heckscher.org and let art be a respite.

Every year at this time we celebrate talented high school students in the exhibition Long Island’s Best: Young Artists at the Heckscher Museum. The 100 students chosen for the 2020 exhibition are featured online and on social media, including students representing the communities of Huntington, Northport, King’s Park, Smithtown and many others across Suffolk and Nassau Counties. Among the rewards of being a Long Island’s Best artist is the chance to see their own work of art in a professional museum setting. Although that opportunity is delayed, it is a promise we are committed to keeping.

When The Heckscher Museum opens — with proper guidance from public safety recommendations — enjoy two wonderful exhibitions, Long Island’s Best: Young Artists at the Heckscher Museum, and Amanda Valdez: Piecework.

Thank you to all who support The Heckscher Museum of Art at this time. Enjoy all of the online and social media content that the museum is providing.  We look forward to a bright future and to inviting everyone back to the museum.

Michael W. Schantz

Executive Director and CEO

The Heckscher Museum of Art

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Centerport Resident Among First to Donate Convalescent Blood Plasma

Dr. Elliott Bennett-Guerrero is leading the clinical trial at Stony Brook Medicine which is expected to enroll up to 500 patients who are hospitalized with COVID-19. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

Stony Brook Medicine has launched a research study in the hopes of developing a treatment for those severely suffering from the coronavirus.

On April 2, SBM began a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved research study to determine if convalescent blood plasma from those who’ve recovered from COVID-19 can help treat currently hospitalized patients. One of the first volunteers was Mark Goidell, a litigation attorney from Centerport.

COVID-19 survivor Mark Goidell donates blood plasma for a research study at SBU. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

The Research Study

Dr. Elliott Bennett-Guerrero, vice chair of Clinical Research and Innovation in the Renaissance School of Medicine Department of Anesthesiology, is heading up the research study. He said the hospital needs approximately 100 volunteers who have recovered from the coronavirus to donate blood plasma, possibly once a week or every other week. Subjects must have contracted COVID-19 and be free of symptoms for 14 days. As of April 22, the doctor said they have received a large number of inquiries leading to 180 people being screened and 90 have been identified as having high levels of antibodies. Currently 25 have either donated blood plasma or are scheduled to do so.

Bennett-Guerrero said researchers are looking for those with high antibody levels of the virus and testing takes about 15 minutes. The donors must also meet regular criteria to be a blood donor, the doctor said, which includes being at least 17 years old, weighing more than 100 pounds, and having no infections Certain travel outside of the U.S. will also be reviewed. 

“We’re very fortunate that we can run this protocol independently, because we have access to a very good test for antibodies, and we also have a licensed blood collection facility already in our hospital,” the doctor said. “So we have those two main ingredients to help us to collect blood plasma and unfortunately have a large number of patients who are in desperate need of help.”

Bennett-Guerrero said the trial will include 500 hospital patients ranging from those who are intubated and those who are not. A higher percentage of patients will receive convalescent serum on a random basis compared to other trials which tend to have 50 percent of patients serve as a control group who receive a placebo.

“Our protocol is unique in that while we want to help as many people as possible, we also want to determine if it’s safe and effective,” the doctor said. “It’s a randomized trial where 80 percent of the patients will receive the convalescent plasma because we hope to benefit as many patients as possible, and there will be a small group of 20 percent of patients that will serve as the control group and get standard plasma. It’s the only way we can rigorously determine if it’s safe and effective to do this.”

Plasma, which is the liquid portion of the blood, helps with clotting and supporting immunity. The hope is the plasma from those who have survived COVID-19 will contain antibodies which in turn can kill the virus in seriously ill patients. According to SBM, convalescent serum therapy is a century-old treatment that has been used in patients during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, the diphtheria epidemic in the U.S. in the 1920s, and more recently, the Ebola outbreak in 2014.

The doctor said it’s too early to determine if giving convalescent blood plasma to a COVID-19 patient will help.

“It’s very early in the stage with this pandemic,” he said. “We’re only beginning to learn what are the patterns of antibody formation in people who had the COVID-19 infection. In general it’s believed that antibodies to COVID-19 will probably persist for a while, perhaps months or years, and likely be protective. However, we don’t know yet if the antibodies that we are measuring actually mean, ‘quote-unquote,’ one is immune and can’t be reinfected. We think that’s probably the case but it’s not proven yet.”

Blood plasma donor Mark Goidell and his wife, Lynn, recently recovered from the coronavirus. Photos from Stony Brook Medicine

The Donor

The doctor said Goidell was a good candidate because he was free of symptoms for a couple of weeks, had high levels of the antibodies in his system and met blood donation criteria.

Both Goidell, 64, and his wife Lynn, 62, came down with the virus. The attorney said he was sick toward the end of February and in early March, and his symptoms included being lethargic and feverish, and at times during the night he would frequently wake up and try to catch his breath, many times going outside to do so.

His wife was admitted to Huntington Hospital March 13 due to having double pneumonia and was discharged a few days later. Goidell said he did have a relapse where he said his symptoms felt like a sinus infection, with a loss of smell and taste. He said he has recovered about 70 percent of those senses.

While his symptoms didn’t initially lead to testing, he said, once his wife was hospitalized he was tested March 17 at an urgent care facility. After reading about the Stony Brook study on the News12 website, Goidell said he was more than willing to participate in the trial.

“It’s heartbreaking to see what’s happening and all the tragedy and anguish that is being brought about by the virus,” Goidell said. “I’m grateful for the fact that I’ve recovered, and I’m able to do something to help.”

He said he feels fortunate to live in close proximity to Stony Brook Medicine. Between his experience with the study so far and his wife’s hospital stay at Huntington Hospital, he has gained an even greater respect and admiration for health care workers. He called those who treated his wife “heroes.”

He added the two of them are now back to working remotely, joking that he has put on some weight due to his wife’s good cooking, and he has been playing a lot of basketball in his driveway to burn off the pounds.

He said he hopes that others who have recovered will donate their plasma, and that others will “stay inside and help each other out.”

“I wish Dr. Bennett-Guerrero and the researchers at Stony Brook the best of luck, and I have the most gratitude for the work they are doing,” he said.

People who have recovered from COVID-19 and want to donate blood plasma can visit www.stonybrookmedicine.edu/COVID_donateplasma where they will be required to fill out an online survey. Potentially eligible people will be asked to participate in a screening visit at a Stony Brook Medicine facility, which will take approximately 30 minutes. You do not need to be a Stony Brook University Hospital patient to participate, but you must meet the required criteria for plasma donation and have high levels of antibodies to the virus that causes COVID-19.

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Cars line up at the Stony Brook coronavirus testing site. Photo by Kyle Barr

The closely watched number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 fell below 1,400 for the first time in weeks, as 10 percent of the people in the hospital were discharged in the last day.

The net decline in hospitalizations was 57 people, bringing the total to 1,377.

“That’s another positive milestone we are hitting,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on his daily conference call with reporters.

The number of people in the Intensive Care Unit also declined by two people, falling below 500.

“This is a continuation of positive signs,” but the county has “a long way to go to beat this thing,” Bellone said.

The number of people who have left the hospital in the last day increased to 141.

“We want to see that number as high as possible,” Bellone said, as he wished those who had returned to their homes a continued recovery.

Meanwhile, the county is adding another hotspot testing site and is planning to open a facility in Coram at the Elsie Owens Health Center this Friday.

The number of people who have tested positive for the virus continues to rise, with 844 people testing positive in the last day, bringing the total positive tests to 29,588.

According to figures on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s (D) web site from the State Department of Health, the number of Suffolk County residents who died in the last 24 hours from complications related to COVID-19 rose by 38 to 926.

The deaths are “beyond anything we could have imagined at the starts of this across Long Island,” Bellone said.

With many groups questioning when the general landscape will open up again, Cuomo announced a new effort to test and trace people to determine who may have COVID-19 and who they may have had contact with. The effort will be headed up by former city mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The governor said it will take an “army” of tracers. Bloomberg is putting up over $10 million for the effort. Over 35,000 SUNY and CUNY medical students will be boots on the ground. The state has 500 tracers currently, but could need many thousands more.

As residents deal with the economic fallout from the pandemic and the shutdown, Bellone urged people to fill out a mortgage relief survey on the county’s web site, at suffolkcountyny.gov. He would like to highlight what financial institutions are doing to “make sure they are doing the right thing,” Bellone said.

He urged residents and businesses to share their situations. If residents are struggling with the site, he suggested they can receive assistance by calling 311.

Bellone cited two recent police actions that resulted in arrests. Police arrested Matthew Christianson, a 21-year old resident of North Babylon. They charged him with nine counts of grand larceny, four counts of criminal possession of stolen property and several other infractions for a crime spree that started on April 14 and ended with his arrest.

In the Deer Park Business District, First Precinct Sergeant Robert Desanto saw a car with inadequate headlights at 12:35 a.m. When he pulled the car over, he saw glass on the back bumper and numerous cartons of cigarettes and boxes of vape pens inside. The 1st Squad detectives arrested 52-year-old Stanley Emerson of Brentwood, 32-year-old Keith Pasha of Bay Shore and 36-year-old Jacqueline DiPalma of Hauppauge and charged them with burglary in the third degree.

Police allege they drove their car through the front window of a store to steal the merchandise.

“To anyone who thinks they will take advantage of this situation, and that somehow the police will be distracted, think again,” Bellone said.

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Phil and Toni Tepe in an undated picture. Photo from Huntington Republican Committee

Toni Tepe, 75, died April 8 after a battle with cancer.

Tepe was the Town of Huntington’s first and only woman Town Supervisor. She was also a former state assemblywoman and the current Huntington Republican Committee chairman. She passed away nineteen days after her husband Phil Tepe, commissioner of the Dix Hills Fire Department and an accomplished public servant in his own right. He died unexpectedly March 20.

Tepe was born Antonia Patricia Bifulco in Manhattan Oct. 20, 1944, to Pasquale Bifulco and Mary (Finello) Bifulco, she was raised in Huntington and graduated from Huntington High School. She went on to attend Katherine Gibbs School in Melville and work as an administrative assistant in the Suffolk County courts.

 After marrying John B. Rettaliata, Jr., she  ran for elected office under her married name, Toni Rettaliata, and became the second Republican woman, and third female, to ever hold the office of New York State Assemblymember from the Town of Huntington. Tepe followed in the footsteps of Huntington Republican suffragette Ida Bunce Sammis, the first woman to ever serve in the New York State Assembly, and succeeding Mary Rose McGee, a Democrat, in the 8th Assembly District (1979-1982), then, after redistricting, serving in the 10th Assembly District (1983–1987). 

As assemblywoman, Tepe notably secured the first $31,000 in funding that allowed former Town Clerk Jo-Ann Raia to build the award-winning and history making Huntington Town Clerk’s Archives and Records Center.

In 1987, Tepe was elected Town of Huntington Supervisor and served the then two-year term as the first and only woman to ever hold the office (1988-1989). She was responsible for the formation of the Town of Huntington Veterans Advisory Board.

She remarried in 2000 to Phil Tepe. Toni Tepe was elected chairman of the Huntington Republican Committee in 2006 and served as its leader until her death. As chairman, she was responsible for the 2017 local election in which the Republican party won control of the Huntington Town Board for the first time in 24 years.

Born in Rockville Centre Jan. 15, 1949, and raised in Dix Hills, Philip H. Tepe was a Vietnam veteran, commander of the Nathan Hale VFW Post 1469, and served on the Town of Huntington Veterans Advisory Board, which his future wife established during her time as Town Supervisor. Phil Tepe served as a Suffolk County Deputy fire coordinator, a Town of Huntington fire marshal and was a great leader in his own right, most recently serving as commissioner of the Dix Hills Fire District, of which he was an ex-chief, Badge #207 and 52-year member of Engine Company 2.

The Tepes are survived by Toni’s sister Hope Van Bladel; Phil’s sisters Diane Marks and Elizabeth Finkelstein; Phil’s children Tiffany (Luke) Legrow, Philip Anthony Tepe II, Brett Tepe; and their grandchildren Shane Legrow and Blakely Legrow.

Funeral arrangements were entrusted to M.A. Connell Funeral Home. A public memorial service will be held at a later date to be determined.

—Submitted by the Huntington Republican Committee

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Stock photo

For the first time in six days, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Suffolk County rose, defying a positive trend for the area.

The number of people hospitalized climbed by 23 to 1,434.

“I wouldn’t put too much stock in one day’s number,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on his daily conference call with reporters. “The question will be,  ‘are we plateauing at a lower level, or is this a one day blip?’”

The number of people in Intensive Care Unit beds declined by 5 to 501.

On the positive side, 68 people were discharged from hospitals in the county.

“We’re very happy to see that number,” Bellone said, although it is lower than it’s been in the last few days.

The number of people who have died from complications related to coronavirus continues to rise, although that number is lower than it’s been recently as well. An additional 29 people have died in the last 24 hours in the county, bringing the total residents who have died from the virus to 888.

Bellone said the county distributed another 100,000 pieces of personal protective equipment yesterday, bringing the total to 2.5 million since the crisis began.

Bellone thanked all those who have helped provide services through Suffolk 311. The number of calls since the pandemic hit the island on March 9th is now 20,000. On an average day before the crisis, the number was closer to 100 per day, while that has now climbed to closer to 650 per day.

“I want to thank the team that has done a terrific job,” Bellone said.

Bellone thanked Hint Water for donating water to first responders, which his office has helped distribute.

He also thanked the Suffolk County Police Department for continuing to do its job amid the pandemic. Indeed, the department arrested Jesus Vazquez for allegedly committing four burglaries in Bay Shore and Brentwood last week.

Looking for positive signs during the ongoing coronavirus crisis, Bellone found it today when he visited Joe Zito of West Babylon, who celebrated his 100th birthday.

For the county executive, the celebration was a “personal sign of hope.”

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District Attorney Tim Sini (D). File photo by Victoria Espinoza

By Leah Chiappino

Suffolk County District Attorney Tim Sini (D) hosted a Town Hall Meeting via Zoom on Thursday, with over 300 constituents in attendance.

Sini first took a moment to acknowledge the difficulties the pandemic is having on people’s mental health and offered condolences to those who know someone who has lost their life to the virus.

“This is more than an inconvenience and will have a long-term impact on mental health, especially with those who have pre-existing conditions and substance abuse disorders,” he said.

The District Attorney, who himself tested positive for COVID-19 March 24, says he has made a full recovery after self-isolating for two weeks, while experiencing mild symptoms such as the loss of smell and taste. He added his diagnosis was not surprising, given the high contact nature of his position

“As of March 16, I was still in court, and doing community outreach and public engagement,” he said. “I am definitely one of the lucky ones.”

Sini is participating in an antibody testing program at Stony Brook Hospital to see if his blood plasma can be found with antibodies for the virus. He encouraged other survivors of the virus to do the same.

Sini reported that violent crime has seen a 24.3 percent reduction, and most other major crimes are down with the exception of commercial burglaries and motor vehicle theft. He says the rise commercial burglaries makes sense, as businesses are shut down and people are taking advantage. His office is coming up with a strategy to address the increase in the coming weeks. However, since March 23, 130 out of 188 handcuffed arrests have been the result of a domestic or child abuse crime.

“We recognize this challenge and we’ll come up with strategies to combat it,” Sini said. He added that prosecutors and victims advocates are mean to get in contact with those who have reported a domestic crime. They are also in coordination with safe shelters for domestic violence victims, most of whom are running and working with hotels if needed. The county has also granted an automatic extension on orders of protection until a victim’s next court date, or until a judge changes it. Victims can text 911 for help or call 631-853-4138 to obtain an order of protection.

The district attorney’s office is assisting enforcement of social distancing guidelines, as part of New York State on PAUSE executive order, made effective March 22. Sini said they would prosecute those who don’t heed warnings by Suffolk County Police, code enforcement officers or village Police, with charges of obstruction of governmental administration and/or disorderly conduct.

“If someone needs to be taught a lesson or made an example of, we’re willing to do that,” he said.

Throughout the call, Sini reassured the DA’s Office will continue operate at its fullest capacity

“We are getting things done,” he said. “You have enough to worry about, whether it be health, homeschooling your children, or finances. One thing you do not have to worry about is whether or not the DA’s office is keeping you safe.”

Sini said his office is continuing to invest in technology and update their protocol to ensure employees can work from home effectively. As of March 16, 80 percent of employees at the DA’s office was working from home, and the entire staff was working from home as of March 17. Suffolk County was the first County in New York state to allow essential hearings and arraignments to be done via Skype, with the necessary paperwork being shared via email.

Sini added the office is taking the time to invest in professional development and zoom-based training. 115 employees have taken Spanish language classes. The bureau is also reviewing strategy, policy development and long-term planning.

According to the district attorney, The Financial and Money-Laundering Bureau is aggressively vetting Personal Protective Equipment suppliers to the county to ensure there are no scams. The county has obtained and distributed 2.2 million pieces of PPE to healthcare workers. Justin Meyers, Sini’s Chief of Staff, is acting as a liaison to the county executive, as well as to hospitals working on expansion and coordinating the implementation of mobile testing sites and PPE Distribution.

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Town of Brookhaven's Cedar Beach. Photo by Kyle Barr

As summer approaches, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D) is forming a working group to balance between public health precautions and summer recreational activities.

Bellone named Deputy County Executive Peter Scully as the chairman of a working group that will include town supervisors, village mayors in the east and west end of Suffolk and representatives from Fire Island.

The group will “work to develop guidelines and recommendations on reopening of municipal facilities,” Bellone said on his daily conference call with reporters. “We know it’s going to get more difficult as the summer approaches [amid] a strong desire to get back to a sense of normalcy.”

The county executive cautioned that Suffolk would not return to life as it was, as residents will live in a “different environment with different rules,” which will likely include the further deployment of face coverings, which can and have reduce the cost in terms of the number of lives lost to the disease.

“When you ask about whether you should continue those guidelines, think about how many people have died,” Bellone said. Indeed, that number climbed another 34 in the last day to 859.

The county, however, continues to share positive news, as the number of people entering hospitals with COVID-19 is lower than the number who are discharged, which reduces the strain on the health care system.

Another 90 people left hospitals and returned home over the last day. The number of people in the hospital fell by 30 to 1,411 people.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced today a regional group that will explore ways to reopen downstate New York. He also said New York would be working with surrounding states to plan reopening, with an emphasis not only on going back to the same place but improving on what came before.

“Let’s use this crisis, this situation, this time to actually learn the lessons … lets reimagine what we want society to be,” Cuomo said.

That downstate group will include representatives from Cuomo’s offices, Bellone’s offices, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), Nassau County Executive Laura Curran (D) and Westchester County Executive George Latimer (D).

On the economic front, Bellone sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to gain acess to the municipal liquidity facility, which could provide property tax relief to residents in Suffolk County.

“We are very hopeful we will gain access” to the ability of the county to do short term borrowing that would allow the county to provide tax relief for residents, Bellone said.

The county distributed 16,000 pieces of personal protective equipment yesterday, which included N95 masks, ear loops masks, goggles, and isolation gowns. Today, the county is distributing some equipment to east end migrant farm workers, who are a “key part of our economy and we want to make sure we are helping them to reduce the spread of the virus,” Bellone said.

The county executive also highlighted Nature’s Bounty, which donated 1,000 N95 masks last week, which the county has given to first responders and health care workers.

Finally, Bellone said the county continued to monitor a storm that might hit the island with heavy rains and high winds. He said the county would be watching the weather closely through the day and might need to close the hotspot testing sites that opened in the last few weeks if the storm posed a threat to those efforts.

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In the last 24 hours, the number of hospitalizations declined by 97 to 1,441 people.

“That is by far the largest drop we’ve seen,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on his daily conference call with reporters. “That is great news.”

Contributing to that net decline was the discharge of 124 patients from county hospitals.
The number of patients in the Intensive Care Unit also fell by 10 to 508, while the number of people on ventilators also declined.

At the same time, amid expanded testing in hotspot areas, the number of new positive tests increased by 783 to 27,485.

For the past two days, Suffolk County has not been able to report on the number of deaths associated with the pandemic. Today, Bellone said that an additional 132 people had died from coronavirus, bringing the total to 865.

The number of people who have died in connection with the virus is “staggering,” Bellone said.

Separately, over the past week, the county executive has been speaking with other officials in the county about trying to provide temporary property tax relief.

“We have to protect taxpayers in this county and we do that by providing relief and preventing long term damage,” Bellone said.

Bellone has been exploring whether Suffolk County might access some of the relief through the Cares Act that created a new entity called the Municipal Liquidity Facility.

This facility enables states and local governments to borrow money in the short term to address cash flow and the loss of revenue caused by the economic shutdown.

“This is exactly the kind of vehicle we need,” Bellone said.

The problem, however, is that the facility is only available to counties with a population of two million or more, which is above the 1.5 million people living in Suffolk County.

Bellone plans to send a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, asking that guidance for that facility change so that counties the size of Suffolk can access municipal funding that would also provide relief to taxpayers.

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Paul Bolliger, a 911 operator, talked a pregnant mom in Bellport through the process of delivery, as an infant girl couldn’t wait for paramedics for her birth.

Yesterday morning at 7:20 am, Bolliger received a call from a woman in labor.

“He quickly realized this delivery was going to happen very quickly,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D), said on his daily conference call with reporters. “He immediately went into action,” providing step by step instructions through the process.

Bellone offered words of thanks to Bolliger and to “all the dispatchers throughout our county who do an incredible ob each and every day, not just during this crisis.”

In a continuing signs of light amid the darkness of the pandemic, Suffolk County reported a gradual continuation of positive trends.

The number of hospitalizations declined for the third day in a row and the fifth day in the last week, falling by 24 to 1,538. The number of residents in the Intensive Care Unit also fell by three, to 518, while ventilator use also declined.

“This is three days in a row where we’ve seen those numbers all going down,” Bellone said. “We’ll see if that trend continues.”

The number of patients discharged from the hospital who can recover at home climbed by 123, also continuing a trend over several days in which over a hundred people can leave hospitals and return to their homes.

Meanwhile, Bellone expressed dismay about a report in Newsday that indicated that some financial institutions are allowing homeowners to miss mortgage payments, but that they are then requiring those payments in a lump sum.

“The notion that there are institutions that would be [requiring a lump sum payment] is deeply disturbing,” Bellone said. “We will be looking at financial institutions and the programs that they are putting in place.”

Bellone said the County Executive’s office would highlight the programs where the banks are “doing the right thing,” while also sharing the names of the those who are putting undue financial pressure on their customers.

The county executive also urged residents who aren’t receiving help during the crisis to reach out to his office by calling 311 and reporting the financial institutions.

“We are going to put together those stories,” Bellone said. He will share information about financial institutions with the public at some point.

Bellone also thanked U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D) for his support for local and state governments. Bellone added that the federal government is the only level of government that has the ability to prop up the economy in a time of crisis. When the federal government leaves that responsibility to cash-strapped states and local governments, the local taxpayers bear the burden which is “unacceptable,” Bellone said.
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