This article has been updated with the version that appeared in print on April 9, 2020.
As New York State approaches what could be the apex of the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo this week extended his New York State on PAUSE executive order by two weeks, meaning that schools and nonessential businesses must remain closed at least through April 29.
A slight leveling off of new Covid-19 cases over the weekend suggested that the state could be reaching a plateau in infections, but even if that proves to be true, “we are plateauing at a very high level,” the governor said in his midday Monday briefing. “It doesn’t really matter if we’ve hit the plateau or not,” the governor said. “Public health still demands we stay on pause.”
Nearly 140,000 had tested positive as of Tuesday, when the state saw its biggest single-day jump in deaths from the virus. Between Monday and Tuesday morning, 731 had died across the state, bringing New York’s death toll to 5,489, but the number of new hospitalizations was increasing at a slower rate than it had been.
Suffolk County was reporting 15,872 Covid-19 cases as of Tuesday afternoon, but by yesterday morning the number had jumped to 16,901, with 74 of them in East Hampton Town, 228 in Southampton, 169 in Riverhead, 233 in Southold, and 3 on Shelter Island. As of Tuesday, 263 people in Suffolk had died from the virus.
“One of the reasons the rate of infection is going down is because social distancing is working,” the governor said Monday. Nevertheless, he said, there has “been a laxness on social distancing, especially over this past weekend, that is just wholly unacceptable.”
To encourage greater compliance with rules requiring that people maintain a six-foot distance from each other in public, the governor said he is increasing fines for violating his order from $500 to $1,000.
“Now is not the time to be lax,” the governor said, adding, “I want our local governments to enforce the social distancing rules. I want them to be . . . more aggressive on enforcement.”
East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo said this week that his officers have been proactive in patrolling beaches and parks to ensure that people are following the governor’s guidelines, and he has worked with code enforcement and the Building Department to address construction sites.
“We received a few complaints over the weekend. However, in most circumstances, the ‘gatherings’ were typically small groups of family members or couples, walking the beach or using the fields. They look like a group from afar, and there may be some crowded parking lots, but our officers have seen very little crowding at all,” Chief Sarlo said. “It seems there are also extended families staying together, so with the grandparents and the kids there can be six or seven people sometimes. There are of course a few exceptions, and when we approach them, they are very compliant and usually apologetic.”
Despite the governor’s threat of increased fines, the focus of policing around the social distancing order is on educating and achieving compliance. “We really hope the public understands there is no ‘fine’ we can hit someone with for this under the executive order, and in order to make an actual arrest, they would have to refuse to comply with our directions, and that just has not happened,” Chief Sarlo said. “We need the public to call us and help us by being our extra eyes and ears. Posting on social media or emailing me to complain after the fact doesn’t help us at all.”
In a Monday afternoon briefing following the governor’s announcement, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said that new Covid-19 cases in the county seemed to be following a similar trend to that in the state as a whole.
On Tuesday, the county reported that there were a total of 3,292 regular hospital beds and 697 intensive care unit beds in Suffolk. Eighty-four new regular beds and one new I.C.U. bed had been set up since the day before.
On Monday, 710 regular hospital beds and 65 I.C.U. beds were free across the county. Between Sunday and Monday, 63 Covid-19 patients had been discharged from hospitals in the county; another 73 were discharged between Monday and Tuesday.
“If we are at that apex,” Mr. Bellone said Monday, it is because all the things New Yorkers are doing to limit the spread of the virus -- from shutting down the economy to practicing social distancing and wearing masks in public — are having an impact. “These sacrifices will and have saved lives, but we must continue them.”
Suffolk received a shipment of 150,000 surgical masks on Sunday, secured with the help of Representative Lee Zeldin, who had acted as a liaison between the county and the White House to arrange for the shipment. An additional 200,000 N95 masks were to have been delivered to the county on Tuesday for distribution to front-line health care workers and first responders.
While the county has received a commitment of help from the White House for the next 30 days, it is continuing to reach out to additional vendors to secure the personal protective equipment it anticipates needing, Mr. Bellone said.
With Reporting by Taylor K. Vecsey