Health

The New York State vaccination site at the Stony Brook Southampton college campus will cease operations as of the end of the day on Monday, July 26. The closure is part of the state's effort to "focus on localized vaccination efforts" in specific communities with lower vaccination rates, according to the governor's office.

The summer brings with it not only the joyful opportunity to spend time with friends and family or explore the outdoors, but also an associated increase in minor wounds and lacerations.

High Covid-19 vaccination rates on the South Fork are giving residents and visitors the confidence to return to their pre-pandemic routines albeit with a dose of caution. 

Yet another variant of SARS-CoV-2 has arisen to cause concern, the Delta variant, which seems to spread faster and make people sicker. If you're like many people lately who have been wondering what precisely this means for the pandemic, you're not alone.

Health care is immensely complicated at times, and there are only so many minutes in the day. Finding a means both to make sure all of a given patient's concerns are addressed while still making sure the time allotted to other patients is not unfairly infringed upon is one of the hardest balancing acts that health care providers are asked to accomplish, and delineating clear expectations from the start of the visit can work wonders in this regard.

"The emergency is over," Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Wedneday. Fifteen months after invoking emergency powers to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, he announced that the state of emergency will end on Thursday.

As of Monday, 71 percent of New Yorkers 18 and older had gotten at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control. To make it easier for people 12 and up to join the ranks of those partially or fully vaccinated locally, New York State will add Tuesday and Wednesday evening hours at its mass vaccination site at the Stony Brook Southampton college campus. 

The Bridgehampton School's Future Farmers of America Club and its adviser, Judiann Carmack-Fayyaz, have designed a memorial dedicated to transportation workers who died during the pandemic.

Clearly, some sort of benefit does come from going out into the world and engaging with the micro-organisms waiting to be found in the dirt of playgrounds and on the snot-covered tables in classrooms. But there is no way of knowing which encounters with micro-organisms will be relatively benign and lead to increased immunity, and which have the potential to be devastating.

On Tuesday, exactly one year, three months, and one week since the day that Suffolk County's first Covid-19 patient was admitted to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced that more than 70 percent of adult New Yorkers have received at least one vaccine shot and lifted most of the remaining pandemic restrictions on retail stores, restaurants, offices, gyms and fitness centers, amusement and family entertainment centers, hair salons and barber shops, and personal care businesses.

New York State Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said this week that when 70 percent of the state's adult population has gotten at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine most of the remaining pandemic restrictions will be lifted. While much of the rest of New York State has yet to reach that mark, East Hampton Town has already surpassed it, Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc announced Tuesday.

Bridgehampton School's fifth-grade book club battled a dragon over the past year and three months, though this particular creature wasn't the scaly, fire-breathing type from fantasy lore. It was worse. Their dragon went by the name Covid-19, and the battles played out in letters the students wrote that are on display at the Hampton Library.

"I remember exactly what I was wearing, I remember exactly who was in the class, and I remember how hard I cried," said Colleen Saidman Yee of Yoga Shanti of the day in March 2020 when she closed her Sag Harbor yoga studio because of the pandemic. After barely surviving a 15-month shutdown, Yoga Shanti in Sag Harbor is seeking to regain its footing with new protocols designed to make students breathe easy about returning to group classes.

Following new recommendations and a clarification from the Centers for Disease Control, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced that New York would modify its mask guidance to allow schools to opt out of requiring masks outside. And in general, virtually all Covid-19 restrictions can be lifted once 70 percent of adult New Yorkers have received at least one dose of the vaccine

News that fully vaccinated people could go without masks and stop social distancing in most settings has been met with unbridled joy by many, but questions remain. Among them, what, if anything, is recommended when it comes to testing vaccinated people for Covid-19.

The American College of Surgeons certified that Stony Brook Southampton has the right equipment, resuscitative capabilities, blood bank protocols, and surgeons and emergency physicians who are trained in advanced life support and who commit to responding to severe cases within 30 minutes of a patient's arrival.

Joanne Goerler didn't want to retire in January from her teaching job at the John M. Marshall Elementary School, where she had worked since 1989, but she didn't really have a choice. The Covid-19 pandemic posed a life-threatening risk to her immune system, which had been compromised by a blood cancer called myelodysplastic syndrome, a surprise diagnosis Ms. Goerler received in the spring of 2018 after having some routine bloodwork.

If, like most Americans, you have been waiting with bated breath for signs that the Covid-19 pandemic is winding down and that a return to normalcy has finally arrived, then you probably heaved a great sigh of relief at some point over the past two weeks as the Centers for Disease Control announced that vaccinated individuals could dispense with wearing masks in most settings. On May 19, New York followed suit and adopted the same guidelines, except where certain municipalities, businesses, schools, and settings such as hospitals or doctors' offices still require them.

It is that time of year again here on the East End of Long Island, when the phones in doctors' offices start to ring seemingly constantly with patients calling with questions about tick bites.

Dr. Gail Schonfeld of East End Pediatrics will run a youth vaccine clinic this weekend in response to the federal government's May 10 announcement expanding emergency use athorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to include adolescents 12 to 15 years of age. Previously, children had to be 16 or over to receive shots.

On Wednesday for the first time since Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo imposed an executive order 13 months ago requiring face coverings in public, people could go into a store or a walk down Main Street without a mask -- provided they were fully vaccinated. The change comes as the number of vaccinated people continues to grow and the infection rate across the state and here in Suffolk County drops to levels not seen since September and October.

Effective Wednesday in New York, people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 no longer need to wear masks or physically distance, both indoors and out. Immunocompromised and unvaccinated people should continue to wear a mask and practice social distancing, and masks will still be required in schools and correctional and health care facilities, on public transportation and in nursing homes and homeless shelters.

Local officials and health professionals continue to expand access to Covid-19 vaccines on the South Fork. Stony Brook Southampton Hospital will hold a pop-up vaccination clinic at the Montauk Playhouse on Thursday to administer the Moderna vaccine and there is a pediatric vaccination clinic slated for next week in East Hampton for children 12 to 18, following the C.D.C.'s emergency use authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for that age group on Wednesday.

With the goal of building "an informed network of community health leaders across the state," New York State has established the Citizen Public Health Training Course, which is open to all New Yorkers who would like to learn about and prepare for public health emergencies.

It's hard not to wonder if the Covid-19 pandemic is finally over, especially as spring brings fairer weather and nature is exploding into life everywhere you look. With new mask-wearing guidelines released last week and businesses reopening in many states, we've come a long way.

After having spent more than a year following Covid-19 precautions, East End residents who are fully vaccinated are easing back into normal life with shopping trips, dinner parties, and family get-togethers. "The first thing I did was host three dinner parties in one week," one resident said. For another, a trip to supermarket "was like going to Saks Fifth Avenue."

Following C.D.C. guidance, New Yorkers who are fully vaccinated will no longer be required to wear masks outdoors, "except in certain crowded settings and venues," and to make it easier to get the vaccine, the state is opening all of its mass vaccination sites to walk-ins. 

Pandemic-related restrictions on restaurants, gyms, offices, casinos, and catered events, will be relaxed the coming weeks in New York, a direct result of improving Covid rates in the state, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Wednesday.

Last week, the news broke that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Federal Drug Administration here in the United States had called for a pause in administration of the single-dose Johnson and Johnson Covid-19 vaccine following reports of blood clots after administration of this vaccine.

East Hampton Town is seeking additional volunteers to help staff a first-dose vaccination clinic on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. at its Center for Humanities on Stephen Hand's Path. Those interested have been asked to call Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc's office on Friday.