Health

With Thanksgiving next week, my thoughts turn to the things for which I am grateful. There are many items on this list, particularly what I am grateful for as a physician, but right now, so many of them are related in some way, shape, or form to Covid-19.

With coronavirus infections surging in Suffolk County primarily because of small indoor gatherings, traditional Thanksgiving celebrations could pose a significant health risk, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone warned on Tuesday.

One more positive test result was confirmed in Sag Harbor, meaning with four total cases, 22 students and five staff members are quarantined. The East Hampton Middle School reported its second covid case on Monday, and two additional East Hampton High School students have tested positive, bringing the school's total to 16 as of Monday.

Citing an “alarming spike in new Covid-19 cases” over the last week, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone announced on Friday the immediate deployment of enforcement teams comprising a county fire marshal and an official from the county’s Division of Consumer Affairs that will supplement ongoing compliance efforts.

Coronavirus infections are surging in Suffolk County and people are primarily contracting the virus at small indoor gatherings. Based on the timing of the surge and contact tracing efforts, "We think the current spike is related to Halloween parties," County Executive Steve Bellone said this week.

I wish I could promise patients that I would never be late again, but there will always be the emergency phone calls just before I'm supposed to walk into a room, or the need to track down previous medical records or laboratory results. Sometimes, I'm late because I've seen a full schedule of patients, one after the other, and I'm sitting in my office for five minutes trying not to be overwhelmed.

With the number of Covid-19 cases in New York growing at a faster rate than at any point since the spring, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Wednesday that all New York State Liquor Authority-licensed establishments and gyms must close at 10 p.m. and that private gatherings in residences, whether inside or out, will be limited to no more than 10 people.

Suffolk County's Covid-19 positive rate has been creeping upward in recent weeks, and on Sunday hit 3.8 percent, the highest seen in months, with 324 people testing positive for the virus. 

With Suffolk County reporting a steady increase in the Covid-19 positivity rate, East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen announced on Monday that Village Hall will be closed to the public starting Thursday and through the end of the year.

By Monday morning, South Fork school districts had reported three more cases of Covid-19 diagnosed since Friday. The affected districts are Montauk, Sag Harbor, and East Hampton.

Two entire classrooms of children at the John M. Marshall Elementary School are in quarantine through Nov. 19 after two cases of Covid-19 were confirmed among fifth-grade students this week. Additionally, two more cases have been diagnosed among East Hampton High School students, and one among the support staff at the Wainscott School.

Charlotte Egerton-Warburton has been busy during the Covid-19 pandemic with a project that helps the world in two ways. Charlotte, 10, makes and sells beaded necklaces that are handy to keep one's mask around the neck. She is using the sale as a fund-raiser for research into ADNP syndrome, also known as Helsmoortel-Van Der Aa Syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder that affects her younger brother, Rowland.

The Suffolk County Health Department traced a cluster of Covid-19 infections to the early voting site at the Stony Brook Southampton campus, County Executive Steve Bellone said in press briefing on Wednesday.

There is a phenomenon in marathons and other endurance sports called "hitting the wall" — the moment when severe fatigue engulfs athletes due to their glycogen stores being depleted. The Covid-19 pandemic is a marathon. After all these months the threat is still very real. This is why everyone has to keep running.

In an email to parents on Monday, James Crenshaw, the East Hampton High School principal, said that the number of confirmed positive Covid-19 cases had risen to six. High school students will have classes online at least through Friday.

Cases of Covid-19 are on the rise across the country and the world. So what do you do if you or a family member is diagnosed with Covid-19?

Bridgehampton School District officials on Tuesday closed the school midday after a parent reported early in the day that their child had tested positive for Covid-19. Ten adults and 10 students will have to quarantine.

For communities with lower Covid-19 infection rates right now (like many of ours here on the East End) compared to hot spots elsewhere in the country, it can be particularly tempting to seize an opportunity for normality and plan to trick-or-treat as usual. But this could be risky.

East Hampton School District officials on Tuesday alerted parents to a new case of Covid-19 in a kindergarten student at the John M. Marshall Elementary School.

The Montauk School and the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center reported cases of Covid-19 over the weekend, and students in one class at each school have been told to quarantine.

According to a statement released on Saturday by District Superintendent Jeff Nichols, the student, who attends Pierson High School, has not been there since Oct. 9.

From the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, one of the biggest concerns for the health care community has been not only the actual effects of the novel coronavirus itself but also the secondary impacts upon people's health and well-being. There were concerns about how increasing numbers of patients with Covid-19 might overwhelm the clinics and hospitals in terms of simple numbers, but the impact upon preventive health was also very worrisome. 

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.

After detecting a spike in coronavirus infections in Suffolk County during the first week of October, when more than 100 new cases were reported in a single day for the first time since mid-July, the county reported far fewer new cases this week, but noted an increase in Covid-related hospitalizations.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.