Huntington Hospital and Northwell released slides displaying the purpose of social distancing and other measures to "flatten the curve." Image from Northwell
As testing for the coronavirus COVID-19 increases in Suffolk County and throughout the country, so too does the number of confirmed cases. As of Wednesday, Suffolk County had 152 confirmed cases, with three fatalities.
“We were behind the eight ball on testing for a while now,” County Executive Steve Bellone (D) said on a conference call with other members of the National Association of Counties and the press. “Those numbers are going to continue to jump. All of these efforts about trying to contain that.”
There are 17 positive tests in Brookhaven, 43 in Huntington, 23 in Islip, and 3 in Smithtown. People who would like to get tested can call 888 364 3065. Residents won’t automatically receive a test if they show up. They need to go to a doctor or have a telephone reference for a possible test. Bellone expects the requirements for testing to loosen up in the coming days.
To protect police officers, Bellone urged residents to file some reports online. Residents can file lost property, criminal mischief, non-criminal property damage, and minor motor vehicle damage, among other issues, through the web site https://www.suffolkpd.org.
The county executive also reminded residents who are experiencing a mental health emergency can reach out to the Dash Center in Hauppauge, which is the first crisis stabilization center on Long Island.
This week, Bellone’s office continued to take numerous steps to inform the public and protect first responders. He encouraged residents to sign up for Smart911, to provide emergency responders with critical medical information. Residents can sign up through the website www.smart911.com.
Residents can also sign up for text message updates on their mobile devices if they text CovidSuffolk to 67283. Over 10,000 people signed up for the texting service on the first day, the county executive said.
Apart from ongoing concerns about the spread of the virus, residents are confronting an economy that has ground to a halt, as people maintain social distancing and businesses from movie theaters to bowling alleys to dry cleaners all closed.
The government “knows the impact to businesses will be devastating,” Bellone said on the call.
The county executive has put together a business response plan and is working to collect data from local businesses. He also advised he continues to work with a business response team, which the Department of Economic Development and Planning and the Suffolk County Department of Labor are leading.
Bellone said the business group was in the “discovery phase” of the plan, as the Department of Labor takes the lead on collecting data from businesses to find out “what’s happening on the ground with their work force.”
He encouraged businesses to reach out through 311 to provide information about the impacts of the virus.
Bellone said he was working on supply chain issues for personal protection equipment for health care workers. He is also hopeful that Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will find ways to work with the Army Corps of Engineers to expand hospital bed capacity to meet the anticipated surge in demand.
As of now, Suffolk County has 2,300 hospital beds, of which 391 are currently available. There are 242 Intensive Care Unit beds, of which 68 are available.
George Latimer, the Westchester County executive, also shared his experiences and his expectations for the progression of the virus on the National Association of Counties call.
Westchester’s cases, which surged to 308, said the county is “where many places will be,” with its number of infections and its efforts to contain the spread of the virus.
Latimer wasn’t optimistic about the potential to reopen schools in his county any time soon.
“I doubt we’ll see academic [efforts] back before the end of June,” Latimer said. “That will cause all sorts of disruptions.”
Latimer said he is concerned about beds and ventilators and that his district has asked retired nurses and doctors if they would return to service.
County executives from other areas also expressed concerns about numerous other challenges, including helping the homeless population, safeguarding people in prisons, protecting first responders and health care workers, and managing their counties’ finances while tax revenue plummets and costs skyrocket.
Devin Rotunno, a native of Port Jeff, is made to wear a mask when she travels outside her room at quarantine in SBU's Southampton campus. Photo from Rotunno
In little more than a week, Port Jefferson native Devin Rotunno’s life has been turned upside down, and though the coronavirus pandemic has impacted many, for students learning overseas, recent events have been dramatic.
Jokingly, Devin Rotunno put up a sign in her dorm at SBU’s Southampton campus noting the number of days she’s been in quarantine. Photo from Rotunno
On Tuesday, March 3, Rotunno was in Florence, Italy, studying fashion among the great Renaissance-era domed cathedrals and aged orange-tile roofed buildings. By late Saturday, March 7, she was back in the U.S., holed up in a small dorm room in Stony Brook University’s Southampton campus. In quarantine, she’s only allowed to go outside her room to go to the bathroom or to pick up her food from the lobby. She is on a floor with two other students, but none are allowed out together at the same time. When out, they must wear a mask at all times.
“If you asked me last week, Tuesday, if I would be leaving, I would have literally thought you were crazy,” she said.
Still, as the days drag by, the 19-year old has had to find ways to fill the time — a full 14 days of quarantine before she’s finally out March 21. Experts have said COVID-19 has a two-week gestation period, and she is among well over 150 people in quarantine in Suffolk County, both mandatory and voluntary.
As a first-year student at the Fashion Institute of Technology, being taught at the Polimoda International Institute of Fashion Design and Marketing in Florence had been an incredible experience. On March 3, Italy had yet to institute its nationwide shutdown, and Rotunno said she had seen people still living their lives as they had just a month before, however with a few more people were being cautious by wearing masks and gloves.
Late Wednesday, March 4, that all changed. Students studying abroad received emails from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security telling them they had to leave and return to the U.S. They were given a day to pack their things and either book flights themselves or take a flight guaranteed by the federal government. When the freshman college student received the news, she was working on a midterm project.
“Our program director — she knew how much we wanted to stay — she was figuring out online classes for us,” Rotunno said.
The students in her class handed in all their assignments, even if they weren’t fully done.
The students boarded a Delta flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport, just around 70 kids from SUNY schools together on the flight. When they landed, instead of being taken through the airport proper, they were led to a hanger where two buses awaited them. The majority went on one bus to SUNY Brockport. The fashion student went on the other bus, where students who said they were self-quarantining were dropped off at Stony Brook University’s main campus, while the rest were taken to the Southampton location, arriving there Saturday, March 7 at 11 p.m.
Devin Rotunno helps kids plant seeds using her Gold Award project Aug. 10, 2018 at the Long Island Explorium on East Broadway in Port Jefferson. File photo by Alex Petroski
She now lives in a suite with two people living in separate dorms across the hall from her. She speaks with them on a group text, but she doesn’t have much communication with them. Most of the time the way she knows they’re there is from hearing them move in their rooms or their feet as they walk down the hall.
“I was joking around with my friends — I was sending them pictures saying, ‘Look, I’m in the Hamptons,’ sending them a picture of the street and cars going by,” she said.
For now, she’s catching up on some Netflix shows and doing work for all her classes which are soon to be hosted online. While some of her basic lectures will likely translate easily enough, some of her classes, which have required draping and sewing, will have to be largely abstracted.
It’s been hard to watch things go on from the inside of quarantine. She said friends had already booked flights to visit her in Florence for spring break, but those plans have been somewhat quashed. When President Donald Trump (R) announced a 30-day travel ban to all European countries save Great Britain and Ireland, she herself panicked as not all her stuff from Italy has yet arrived, but she said she’s received word the rest of her items should be arriving soon.
Despite the initial confusion and anger of being pulled out of Italy with barely enough time to make sure her things were packed and hand in last-minute assignments, she said she understands why this is necessary.
“When everything was on lockdown, it was the right decision,” she said.
Stony Brook University has changed its class policy during the coronavirus outbreak. File photo
As colleges across the nation have done, Stony Brook University will go to remote instruction for the remainder of the semester, starting on March 23rd. Classes and finals will meet remotely at their regularly scheduled times.
While students will take classes remotely, they can access services on campus, including academic advising, dining services, residence halls, library services, recreation programs, athletic facilities, and hospital and clinical services. Students who live on campus may continue to stay in their residence halls and will receive the same services.
Transitioning to remote learning was something the school did to “curtail large group gatherings and reduce time spent in close proximity with one another in classrooms, lecture halls, dining facilities, and campus residences,” Interim President Michael Bernstein said in a statement. “Our actions are consistent with the guidance of public health agencies on how to limit the spread of Covid-19 and it is also similar to decisions made by peer institutions.”
The school’s business and administrative operations will also be open and athletic events will continue as scheduled until further notice.
The only remaining indoor event is Friday’s America East women’s basketball game. Tickets will remain available through Friday at noon and will be capped to ensure space for fans who would like to watch the game. Outdoor sporting events are unaffected by the changes.
Most non-classroom events and large gatherings will be canceled or postponed starting this week through at least the end of the month.
The school awaits guidance from local and regional public health agencies to determine when to reopen classrooms for face-to-face teaching.
As for the hospital, Stony Brook has developed a revised visitor policy. All visitors have to fill out a health declaration form before entering the hospital. Visitors who are sick will be asked to leave. Stony Brook is also restricting the number of ways people can enter the building. Visitation rules vary depending on the department and are as follows:
Adult patients can have one visitor at a time. Visitors have to be 18 and over.
Pediatric and NICU patients can have two visitors per patient. The visitors must also be 18 or older. Parents, guardians and support persons only.
Labor and Delivery/ Postpartum can have two visitors per patient. Visitors must be 18 and older and are restricted to partners or support persons.
Emergency Department will not permit visitors for adult emergency department patient areas. Patients requiring assistance can have one visitor. One visitor per pediatric patient is allowed in the pediatric emergency department and that visitor must be a parent or caregiver.
Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery Center Locations can have one person at the time of visit. The ambulatory care center will make exceptions for pediatric patients and others requiring an aide or additional assistance.
Patients who cough or show other signs of illness will be asked to leave.
Like the great white shark that needs to keep swimming to stay alive, scientific databases that provide resources to researchers from all over the world can’t stay still or they risk losing their usefulness and reliability.
The directors of these resources need to find funds that will ensure that the data remains accessible and that users, who range from high school students conducting work for a class to the chairman of research departments at colleges, can benefit from the availability of information.
Maureen O’Leary. Photo from SBU
Maureen O’Leary, a Professor and Graduate Program Director at the Department of Anatomical Sciences at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, is looking to ensure that Morphobank, a web application and database that allows scientists around the world to share raw data on the structure of various organisms to help determine their evolutionary links, receives funds that sustain its mission.
O’Leary helped start MorphoBank in 2000 to encourage researchers to share data and propel science forward and is currently the director. By making observations of the structures of organisms available in one place online, she hoped to help advance the field of phylogenetics — the relationships among organisms in a family tree — while cutting down on the need to reproduce data from the same fossils at museums or other sites.
Up to this point, O’Leary has found financial support for the effort through grants from the National Science Foundation, the American Museum of Natural History and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
Looking to the future, however, O’Leary wanted to create a financial plan that would ensure ongoing funding for a database that has not only helped researchers explore data, but has also enabled collaborators to share information privately in a non-public area of MorphoBank.
O’Leary has been working with Phoenix Bioinformatics, a nonprofit group based in Fremont, California that has developed funding models for databases. Phoenix started its operations in 2013 after the staff of TAIR, a curated database for plant genome information, lost its grant funding.
The business is in the early stages of helping O’Leary with Morphobank, said Eva Huala, the Executive Director of Phoenix and a founding member of TAIR.
Phoenix has helped construct a financial model that is similar to the way university libraries and scientists pay for subscriptions to journals. The prices vary depending on the database the library subscribes to and the amount of usage of that database from the university.
Huala said Phoenix is providing software that helps recruit members. The company is also enabling users to see whether their institution is supporting MorphoBank. So far, the Executive Director is “encouraged by the response. We know that this often takes several months or longer for libraries to decide” to lend financial support, she said.
The cost of running MorphoBank is connected to the time people spend curating as well as fixing bugs or managing computer-related challenges. Without software patches and fixes, the databases can run into problems.
Universities often require their researchers to make sure the data they collect is available to the scientific community, Huala explained, adding that MorphoBank can give scientists a way to “demonstrate the impact of their research” by offering download and viewing statistics for their data.
Mike D’Emic, an Assistant Professor in Biology at Adelphi University and a member of the Executive Committee of MorphoBank, has used the database for over seven years.
D’Emic suggested that MorphoBank “saves people from reinventing the wheel in doing science” by providing free, raw data. Scientists don’t have to travel to museums or other sites to gather the same information.
An early career researcher or student might have a small grant to visit three or four museums. These scientists can “supplement that data set with information from MorphoBank that’s multiple times the value of a grant they would have gotten,” D’Emic noted.
Scientists can freely use data from MorphoBank that would have taken tens of thousands of dollars to acquire. This includes photographs of a dinosaur skull from distant countries or CT scans that can be expensive to produce.
D’Emic, who helped convince the Adelphi library to provide financial support for the database, said MorphoBank addresses bug reports quickly, fixing problems with a few days.
Prior to O’Leary’s effort to start MorphoBank, a researcher might need to search through the appendices or the published reports from other scientists in their field to access raw data for tree building, sometimes retyping by hand large spreadsheets of numerical scores.
MorphoBank has been “invaluable and transformative in terms of the way people access and replicate science,” D’Emic said.
Some journals have started urging authors to publish their data online. The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology strongly recommends uploading dataset, character descriptions and images to an online repository.
“For not too much money, MorphoBank has a huge impact on science,” D’Emic said, who said it was a cost effective boost to evolutionary biology and related fields
Scientists have changed significantly in their approach to sharing information. Around 30 years ago, some researchers wouldn’t always share their raw data. Other scientists would then have to spend thousands of dollars to travel to places like Thailand, Australian and Madagascar.
“People have come around” and are more comfortable exchanging data, sometimes as they produce it, D’Emic said. “MorphoBank has been an integral venue for convincing people you should share.”
O’Leary believes researchers have evolved in the way they think about the information they collect as a part of their studies.“We have reached a social transition where scientists get used to not only writing a paper and walking away, but making sure the data content is in a digitally reusable format,” she said.
O’Leary feels fortunate to have received funding for over two decades for MorphoBank. She plans to remain the director when MorphoBank moves to Phoenix. It’s an “important and dynamic tool” and she feels a “responsibility to allow its continuity.”
*Update* This post has been amended to reflect new cases of coronavirus in Suffolk County as well as new info from town and county sources.
In the same week the World Health Organization called the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, Suffolk County recorded its first six positive tests for COVID-19.
The first four people to have the virus contracted it through community transmission, which means that none of them traveled to countries where infections are more prevalent. The patients include a Brookhaven Town man in his 20s who is in isolation at Stony Brook University Hospital, a Southold resident who is in her 20s and is under home isolation, a man in his 80s who is in isolation at St. Catherine’s Hospital and a man in his 40s who is in isolation Stony Brook Southampton Hospital.
At the same time, eight people were under mandatory quarantine while the New York State Department of Health is monitoring 72 people under precautionary quarantine because of their travel abroad, according to officials from the Suffolk County Health Department.
Dr. Gregson Pigott, commissioner of the county Department of Health Services, said the patient is “getting better” and expected that he will “be fine.”
Pigott said several area facilities have developed the ability to test for COVID-19, including LabCorp and Northwell Health Labs, which received state and federal approval to start manual testing for the virus. Northwell is seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to use semi-automated testing within the week, which could boost the number of tests to the hundreds per day and into the thousands in the near future, the health lab said.
Pigott said Suffolk County was “on top of” the virus “for now” but that the circumstances could change, which is why several facilities have taken steps to protect various populations.
Stony Brook University told students this week that it would transition to all online classes starting on March 23, according to a letter sent out to students. The online version of the classes will continue through the end of the spring semester. Stony Brook is one of several colleges throughout the country that is taking steps to protect students through online versions of their classes. Princeton University, Stanford University, Harvard College and the University of Washington, to name a few, are also teaching classes online. Hofstra University canceled classes this week as well.
On March 10, Stony Brook’s Staller Center canceled all events for March “out of an abundance of caution” due to the coronavirus, according to a release.
Meanwhile, the New York State Education Department and the State Department of Health issued updated guidance to school and community health officials, which includes requiring schools to close for 24 hours if a student or staff member attended school prior to being confirmed as a positive COVID-19 patient. Additionally, during that period the school is expected to disinfect the building or buildings where the person had contact prior to testing positive. The departments also urged schools to work with community feeding organizations to plan for distribution of food to students who rely on the two meals served at schools each day.
The local health department will notify schools if and when they are required to close because of the virus and when they can reopen. Schools are not expected to decide about closing or canceling events on their own.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has canceled all public events, including lectures and on-site visits, through April 30.
Brookhaven National Laboratory, responding to guidance from the U.S. Department of Energy, has suspended all international business travel, with an exception for mission-essential international travel. Staff returning from China, Iran, South Korea and Italy are required to self-quarantine for 14 days. Staff will also have to self-quarantine if a household member traveled to those countries. All in-person visits of people from those countries are postponed.
Meanwhile, county Sheriff Errol Toulon Jr. (D) suspended all contact visits with prisoners. Noncontact visits can still be scheduled in advance, while visiting hours will be 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and will be limited to 30-minute sessions.
To protect the most vulnerable population, the U.S. State Department also made recommendations to senior facilities. Following those guidelines, Affinity Skilled Living in Oakdale started screening staff and visitors earlier this week, which includes taking their temperature. The facility also has restricted visiting hours.
Interim President Michael A. Bernstein with podcast guest Thomas Manuel, founder of The Jazz Loft. Photo from SBU
Stony Brook University recently launched its first-ever official podcast, “Beyond the Expected,” to highlight the expertise and contributions from outstanding members of the SBU community.
SBU leaders and personalities host guests whose stories exemplify the diversity of the SBU community and thought and the global impact of their scholarship. “Beyond the Expected” offers compelling interviews and insightful perspectives from members of the Stony Brook University community and beyond who are deeply committed to contributing their time, talent and solutions to the most pressing issues in the communities where they live, work or play.
The 30-minute show features rotating podcast hosts, beginning with inaugural host Interim President Michael A. Bernstein who kicked off the podcast series by delving into compelling discussions with members of the campus community who are making a great impact on the lives of others.
Through teaching, research and discovery, scholarship, engineered solutions, diversity, public-private partnerships and philanthropic relationships, these new episodes of “Beyond the Expected” podcast interviews will bring this to life. “Stony Brook University faculty, staff and students put their heart and soul into their work, which elevates our regional economy and contributes more broadly to areas such as environmental sustainability, health care, and social and cultural identity,” said Bernstein.
“This podcast will showcase their drive and diversity as we learn about what inspired them when young, and what they’re doing now that helps make Stony Brook the great community partner that it is today,” he added.
Some of the inaugural featured guests and topics of discussion on the “Beyond the Expected” podcast include:
▪ Professor Abhay Deshpande on the evolution of nuclear science and his involvement in planning for the Brookhaven National Lab-awarded development of the Electron-Ion Collider.
▪ Dr. David Fiorella on cutting-edge approaches to interventional brain surgery and new services he has brought to Long Island, helping save lives of stroke victims.
▪ Jazz Artist-in-Residence Thomas Manuel on the origins and historic relevance of The Jazz Loft, the song that got him hooked him on jazz and a memory of his best performance.
▪ Dr. Sharon Nachman on the safety of immunizations and vaccines and insights on the 2019 novel coronavirus.
▪ Dr. Carolyn Peabody and second-year MSW student, Meesha Johnson, on the 2020 Census and getting the Native American population in Suffolk County counted.
▪ Actor, director, screenwriter and author Alan Alda, visiting professor and founder of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science in conversation with Alan Inkles, director of the Staller Center for the Arts.
“Beyond the Expected” podcast is now live and can be downloaded and subscribed to on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Radio Public and Google Podcasts. One can also check out the vodcast on YouTube.
Stony Brook’s SAC bus loop is one of the stops of the SBU to Port Jeff shuttle. Village officials say the cost of the project has put it in jeopardy after the end of the spring semester. Photo from Google maps
The jitney service between Port Jefferson and Stony Brook University is back on the menu for the spring and fall semesters, this time with extra funding from the Port Jeff Business Improvement District and a larger price tag.
The Port Jefferson, Stony Brook University Shuttle before the service was contracted out to Suffolk Transportation Inc.. Photo from Kevin Wood
The new service extends the service for an additional two weeks, from 10 to 12, and will run until midnight Fridays and Saturdays. The service also changes one of the pickups at Stony Brook University from the Chemistry Loop to the Hilton Garden Inn.
The BID is putting up $10,000 of its funds for the program, leaving Port Jefferson with just under $20,000 of the bill.
“We are proud to partner with the village in bringing the shuttle service back to our Business District,” said Roger Rutherford, BID president, in an online release.
At the Feb. 18 village board meeting, parking administrator Kevin Wood was seeking $24,608 in funds, per semester, to continue the PJ/SBU Shuttle for the next spring and fall semesters. The program is paid through parking meter funds.
However, Michelle Ferrante, senior account clerk, pointed out that any contract over $20,000 the village signs onto must go out to BID. This wouldn’t be a problem if the village were using its own jitney bus, however, the board voted last year to contract out to Bay Shore-based Suffolk Transportation Service, mainly due to the previous bus lack of Americans with Disabilities Act compliance and the overall failing quality of the previous vehicle.
The village has also lacked other intervillage public transit options since the BID-run program with Qwik Ride ended. Officials said those small cars had not done the job they needed them to do, rarely being there for people who requested them, and drivers were taking requests from people outside the village to make tips.
At the meeting, questions were raised whether the Suffolk Transportation was a sole source provider, and if it provides transportation services for Suffolk County.
According to its website, the company operates with Suffolk County public transit under the name Suffolk Bus Corp. The company also operates the paratransit buses, known as Suffolk County Accessible Transit, which ferry disabled people on select routes across the county.
The village board agreed to approve the funds for this spring semester if Wood could keep the budget for the jitney service under $20,000, which meant cutting the number of weeks and hours it ran for.
The program will come under review again come the start of the fall semester.
Wood said the university would not currently consider helping to pay for the program, but said he has plans for the future, including possibly surveying riders and asking where they shopped or dined.
“The program will gain popularity and ridership and, therefore, success,” he said. “We may test run a pay by cellphone so that students also have a contribution to this wonderful service. We would expect rates to be well below any alternative mobility.
Although officials have praised the program for bringing in more people sans cars into the village, Garant said she has questioned the cost of the program, especially since Port Jeff started to contract with an outside company. She said adding extra days and weeks to the program has only exacerbated those costs, and she doubts either the BID or university will either be able or willing to pick up the majority of the tab long term.
“Honestly, the program is in jeopardy in the fall,” she said.” The mayor added she has asked Wood to look into different transit companies or into the village purchasing its own two new jitney buses.
The new schedule is Thursdays from 3 to 10 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays from 3 p.m. to 12 a.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The bus stops at Student Activities Center Loop, Hilton Garden Inn, Chapin Apartments, Wild by Nature Market parking lot, Port Jefferson village on Arden Street and Port Jeff train station.
The spread of the new coronavirus has become increasingly likely in the United States, public health officials suggested, as the sickness that started in China has infected people in 39 countries including Italy and South Korea where an American service member has contracted the virus.
During a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, Nancy Messonnier, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said it was “not a question of if this will happen but when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illnesses.”
Messonnier’s warning included a suggestion that people start asking their schools about plans for dismissal and for conducting classes online if the coronavirus, now called Covid-19, affects their communities.
Stocks fell sharply lower on Monday and Tuesday amid concerns about the effect on the global economy.
As of earlier this week, over 80,000 people had tested positive for Covid-19, which claimed the lives of over 2,700 people. In the United States, the number of confirmed cases, including those from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, had reached 57. None of those cases is in New York, where 26 tests have come back negative and one is still pending, according to the New York State Department of Health.
Bettina Fries, the chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, said the infections in Italy and South Korea signaled a new phase in the epidemic.
“We are now having these new cases where we can’t even link them” to exposure to people who have traveled to China, Fries said. “The genie is out of the bottle. Once that happens, it’ll be that much harder” to contain the virus.
Fries described the virus, which health officials believe is transmitted through droplets from people carrying the infection, as “behaving much more like the flu,” which is why the CDC is preparing for cases in the United States.
With other coronaviruses, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome, the majority of patients who transmitted these diseases had symptoms like high fevers. That may not be the case with Covid-19, as patients that are “asymptomatic could be shedding the virus,” making it more difficult to contain, Fries said.
Medical professionals don’t have any medication or vaccine, while the world population, which hasn’t been exposed to this new virus, also hasn’t developed any kind of resistance.
If pockets of the outbreak appear in the United States, it is “conceivable that schools could shut down and that there could be rules where people self quarantine” for the required 14 days, Fries said.
Fries added that it’s important to protect health care providers who are on the front lines in this battle. Stony Brook is continuing to make contingency plans in the event of confirmed cases of this coronavirus, which includes making space available if necessary. In the event of an outbreak, the hospital would change its policy of having trainees, residents and medical students go in and out of rooms with doctors on rounds, she said.
Fries added that the warmer weather may not cause a reduction in the incidence of the virus. “Every virus is different,” Fries said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced several measures to prepare New York for the potential spread of the new coronavirus, called Covid-19, to the Empire State. Cuomo announced a $40 million appropriation for the New York State Department of Health to hire additional staff, procure equipment and any other resources necessary to respond to the spread of Covid-19. The governor is also proposing legislation to grant authority to the Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker to make sure local health departments and private and public hospitals take necessary actions in response to the virus. The department will bring together local health departments and hospitals statewide to review protocols, practices and procedures to make sure they are prepared to combat the spread of Covid-19.
Cuomo is also asking the federal government to authorize the Wadsworth Center and NYC Public Health Laboratory to test for the virus, which would speed up the test results. New York State has developed and validated a test using the protocol of the Centers for Disease Control. Once Wadsworth receives Food and Drug Administration approval, it can test people under investigation in New York and other northeastern states.
The Department of Health will coordinate with the Mass Transit Authority, Port Authority and airport operators and the workforces for these public transit systems to ensure workers are trained and can access supplies such as cleaning and protective equipment, that they need to operate mass transit and airports. New York is working with all state agencies to prepare for the potential pandemic.
Updated Feb. 28 to include information about Cuomo’s measures.
Mather is one of four separate Northwell hospitals approved for a catheterization lab. The hospitals are looking to compete for services amongst some of the larger health entities in New York state. Photo from Northwell
Mather Hospital in Port Jefferson will soon be joining nearby Stony Brook as one of the few places on Long Island to contain a cardiac catheterization lab to provide less invasive heart-related services.
New York State approved Northwell Health, which includes Mather in its group, to open four cardiac labs at different locations in New York. Alongside Mather, Lenox Health Greenwich Village, Plainview Hospital and Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco have been approved for labs. The lattermost was approved in December.
According to a Northwell release, these labs specialize in using X-ray guided catheters help open blockages in coronary arteries or repair the heart in minimally invasive procedures — ranging from stenting to angioplasty and bypass surgery – that are less traumatic to the body and speed recovery.
The approval means a big leap for the Port Jefferson hospital, which plans a $11.4 million, 3,644-square-foot addition that will include catheterization and electrophysiology labs. The construction is expected to finish and both labs be open by early 2021.
“With the investment in these four new PCI programs, we are able to advance our mission of improving access, as well as bringing high quality complex cardiovascular services to our patients in their local communities,” William O’Connell, executive director of cardiology services at Northwell Health, said in a release.
Mather president, Kenneth Roberts, has said in a previous interview with the Port Times Record that a big reason the hospital signed on with the health care network is to have the ability and room to innovate at the hospital and keep up with the times. He echoed that sentiment in a statement.
“With Northwell’s guidance and the diligence of our Mather team, Mather received approval from the New York State Department of Health to provide advanced cardiology programs which include cardiac catheterization, PCI and electrophysiology services,” he said. “Approximately 150 patients every year are [currently] transferred from Mather or St. Charles to have these services elsewhere.”
The 2020 U.S. Census could be pivotal for New York, which could potentially lose one or two U.S. reps from a general loss of population. Stock photo
It’s a once-in-a-decade request, and this year’s census could determine just how much local schools, governments and nonprofits get in aid from the federal government. Not to mention, this year’s count could determine if New York could be sending one or two less U.S. representatives to Washington out of its current total of 27.
It has enough officials worried that New York State is funneling money around to different counties to get people to fill in the survey. Suffolk County is expected to receive $1.019 million toward its efforts. Officials have called for additional funds toward the census in this year’s budget, though most don’t expect the money to materialize before the census starts rolling in mid-March. New York State has made $20 million available of a total of $60 million to go toward engagement efforts in local municipalities. $15 million is going to the state’s 62 counties.
“It’s the principle that we count, and we should be counted.”
— Martha Maffei
This year, galvanizing the populace to take the census has become a phenomenon, with players at the state, county and local level putting a heavy emphasis on this year’s survey. On the line, advocates say, is a correct political representation on a federal level as well as $675 billion annually in federal funds for prioritizing road work, school aid, grants and Medicaid funding.
Due to the 2010 census, New York lost two congressional seats, and some have said this year’s count could lose the state one or two more. Local groups, both small and large, have the task of energizing enough people to gain an accurate headcount.
Like herding cats, that’s much easier said than done
Suffolk County Complete Count Committee was created in 2019 in part by the nonprofits Health & Welfare Council of Long Island and Long Island Community Foundation to generate engagement for those efforts.
Rebecca Sanin, president of HWCLI, said they have around 300 groups, including nonprofits, religious organizations, business organizations and governments, participating at least to some degree in outreach among 11 subcommittees. The nonprofit has also established guidebooks and graphics for everyone from immigrant leaders to hospitals to senior citizens.
“We’re really trying to build momentum, where the end is a 10-year funding impact to our region,” Sanin said.
The committee has become a hub for joining up the disparate groups looking to promote the census. The state has its own CCC, and other counties have been encouraged to create their own committees. County Executive Steve Bellone (D) was named to the New York State Complete Count Committee by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D).
“Suffolk County is not only the largest suburban county in the state of New York, but we have the fourth largest and hardest-to-count populations in New York state,” Bellone said during a 2019 meeting with the Suffolk Complete Count Committee. Approximately 40 percent of county residents live in hard-to-count areas, he said.
People will start to see this year’s census mailed out in mid-March, and the census process continues for the next several months. Stock photo
County officials have hosted census job fairs this year and last, with positions paying $17 to $23 an hour.
Governments at both county and town level have started putting notices of the census in official emails and releases. Brookhaven Councilwoman Valerie Cartright (D-Port Jefferson Station) had been drafted to partner with the complete count committee. She said the town is working on a project with the tax receiver’s office to send out a reminder in the midyear tax receipts that goes out to every household in Brookhaven. They have also started to include information about the census in town programs hosted this year and had representatives from the census table at town events.
“Undercounting of communities can have a domino or ripple effect on community projects and issues for years to come,” the councilwoman said in an email. “A complete and accurate count of your community can result in improved infrastructure and schools, better community health and programs and much more.”
Steven Collins, who works for the U.S. Department of Commerce as a partnership specialist for the census in Suffolk, said the big game changer this year is the now-four different ways residents are going to be able to respond to the census. People can now respond over the internet, over the phone or using the usual mailed in paper survey. The fourth way is when all other options are exhausted, and when census operators have tried to reach an individual by several other means, an enumerator will knock on one’s door.
Though not all see the incentivized online component as a good thing. Sanin said there are many who have a general distrust of putting information online, due to the many examples of private companies being hacked to get access to a user’s personal data. There is also a large digital divide, and many still do not have easy access or understanding how to use the online component.
Despite the online component, census promotion still requires boots on
the ground
Stony Brook University has been active in trying to get students signed up for the count but have also started concerted efforts to encourage indigenous groups, especially those living on Long Island’s South Fork, to sign on for the census.
Despite how seriously census takers have been in requesting surveys, that still has not stopped multiple areas coming back with low response rates, some barely above 50 percent.
In Suffolk County presentations to the complete count committee, some communities are shown as much harder to count than others. While much of the North Shore shows a response rate of 70 percent or better, a large area in Huntington and Huntington Station, with sizable minority populations, have a response rate of 60 percent, at worst.
At www.censushardtocountmaps2020.usa, researchers have used previous census data to track which areas showed lower census participation.
In Brookhaven, one area with low turnout happens to be around the hamlets of Ridge and Upton and in Selden and Centereach, especially in the area along Route 112 that has a previous response rate of only 60 to 65 percent.
There are portions of Long Island with much worse representation. There are certain parts of West Babylon with a response rate as low as 0 to 60 percent.
SEPA Mujer, a nonprofit immigrants rights advocacy group, has chapters in several of the areas that show low response rates, including Riverhead, Huntington Station and Patchogue. Martha Maffei, the executive director of the nonprofit, said they have formed coalitions at two of their three chapters specifically to energize the community for the census. Many of their organizers and members have advocated for local immigrants to take the census which comes with the task of convincing the immigrant community the information will not be used against them by immigration enforcement.
“It’s the principle that we count, and we should be counted,” Maffei said.
Usually, she said, organizers take the tack of arguing that filling out the census will mean more funding for their school districts and how it will offer them better political representation.
The complete count committee has organized 13 total groups on the immigration subcommittee who have all pledged to move through these communities. The issue, she said, is money, compounded with the amount of ground these volunteers have to cover, with only the some $1 million to be spread amongst all of Suffolk.
“Fear nurtures an undercount, and an undercount nurtures our continued inequity.”
— Rebecca Sanin
Still, she’s optimistic these hard-to-count areas will be more active than 2010.
The census is meant to track everyone, including those undocumented immigrants, in order to get a full understanding of total population, but in 2019 the potential for a citizenship question to appear on the census created a tornado of partisan bickering, with opponents saying such a citizenship question would specifically target Latino groups and incentivize them to not respond to the census, thereby limiting the political capital such groups could wield. Officials said the pro-citizenship question was needed to enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965, designed to help blacks overcome legal barriers to voting during the Jim Crow era.
In November of last year, The New York Times reported on disclosures from the White House hinting that Republican strategists had political reasons for encouraging a citizenship question, that it would increase Republican influence and political power once totals for the census were drawn by undercounting residents in largely Democratic areas.
Judges ruled the question illegal under Title 13, which states the government can only use data from the census for statistical purposes. Collins reiterated there will be no citizenship question on this year’s census, and all information is kept extremely confidential and secure.
Yet the idea still lingers in the minds of some residents, and it is something census advocates said they have had to work around.
Sanin and Maffei said the citizenship question has undoubtedly had a cooling effect toward the census, though to what extent is hard to gauge.
“We feel we are going from one attack to another,” Maffei said. “There is a lot of trauma in this community.”
The general distrust in government and in government systems is high, and trying to encourage people “living in the shadows,” as Sanin put it, is where much of the past year’s efforts have gone.
“Fear nurtures an undercount, and an undercount nurtures our continued inequity,” she said.
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