Health

As Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone continues to blast Washington, D.C., lawmakers for inaction on a Covid-19 assistance plan that could help municipalities, one of the impacts of that lag is that taxpayers in public school districts are already footing the bill for the rising costs of preventing the virus's spread in classrooms and hallways.

The New York State Health Department has charged In the Know Experiences, the concert promoter involved in the Chainsmokers concert held in Water Mill in July, with violating public health law. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced last week that the state will seek $20,000 in fines for holding a "nonessential gathering" and failing to enforce the wearing of face coverings.

The New York State Health Department has charged In the Know Experiences, the concert promoter involved in the Chainsmokers concert held in Water Mill in July, with violating public health law. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced last week that the state will seek $20,000 in fines for holding a "nonessential gathering" and failing to enforce the wearing of face coverings.

The novel coronavirus causing Covid-19 has the ability to affect many body systems and can lead to such a wide variety of symptoms that it is difficult to say without a test whether certain symptoms are those of a cold or Covid.

Saoirse and Adrie Quinn are old enough to remember school before Covid-19 — before home was "school" on some days. Now Saoirse, a Springs School second grader, and Adrie, a fifth grader, are adjusting to a new normal, one that accounts for every moment of the on-site school day, but leaves them and their parents accountable for their remote learning at home.

Covid-19 continued this week to wreak havoc in local schools, with cases popping up in Montauk and Springs for the first time and a third instance emerging in East Hampton's John M. Marshall Elementary School.

For the first time since July 13, more than 100 new cases of coronavirus infection were reported in a single day in Suffolk County last week, with 104 people testing positive on Thursday and 103 on Friday. After dipping to 49 on Sunday, by Monday the number of new cases in the county was up to 89, and on Tuesday 109 new cases were reported, according to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's office.

As the pandemic continues, temperatures drop, and people prepare to spend more time indoors, East End homeowners are clamoring to upgrade ventilation systems with air filters and purifiers, among other devices to keep their homes as Covid-safe as possible.

The Montauk School will be closed on Wednesday and Thursday after a teacher was identified Tuesday afternoon as having contracted Covid-19.

Another confirmed case of Covid-19 in a student at the John M. Marshall Elementary School in East Hampton was reported late Friday afternoon, the third such case to come to light in the last nine days, and right after that came word of a case at the Springs School.

Dr. Fredric I. Weinbaum, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital's chief medical officer and chief operating officer, provided an overview of the Covid-19 pandemic and discussed how the medical system was better positioned to manage if a fall or winter resurgence occurs.

Yesterday, I had to have a bit of a heart-to-heart with myself. I need to do this every now and then when my eating or exercise or spiritual habits fall by the wayside. It's generally a somewhat insidious process, in which several weeks (or months) go by, and I realize one day that instead of eating kale and cucumbers, I'm subsisting mostly on Oreos and haven't run in about a month.