Coronavirus

On Monday New York State began distributing 170,000 doses of a coronavirus vaccine, including 26,500 doses designated for Long Island, which will be used to inoculate high-risk groups such as health care workers, nursing home residents and staff, and emergency medical services personnel. 

Compared to most people, Jake Lorefice was one New York University music technology master's degree more prepared to roll with the pandemic's punches and modify the Montauk School's music program, setting his sixth graders up for podcasting success. 

A mix of the holiday spirit and a desire to pierce the pandemic gloom with strings of twinkling lights has led to a record-breaking boom in Christmas tree sales, according to several South Fork vendors, and left those who waited too long scrambling to find a tree.

“What will happen in four weeks?" Governor Cuomo asked, as vaccines were rolled out across the state and the number of new Covid-19 cases continued to climb precipitously. "You tell me what you're going to do over the next three weeks or four weeks and I'll tell you what's going to happen. . . ."

The Bridgehampton School has instituted remote learning for six days starting Wednesday as more Covid-19 cases were diagnosed there. One staff member and two students tested positive for the virus, according to Robert Hauser, the district superintendent.

The School Covid Report Card, a state database that details the number of cases in local schools, shows one new case reported on Monday, three on Tuesday, and one on Wednesday. Of those five, four were students and one was a staff member.

Lately, I have had a number of patients refer sardonically to their “Covid 15,” a play of words on the colloquial weight gain that many college freshmen experience their first year at college. The effects of this pandemic are myriad and will be years in the delineating, but among them is definitely some degree of physical deconditioning for many people, myself among them. 

Section XI, the governing body for public high school sports in Suffolk County, on Friday postponed “until authorization is provided” the “high-risk” sports — boys and girls basketball, wrestling, and cheerleading — from the winter schedule that is slated to begin Jan. 4.

The pandemic has seriously impacted many who fish or work on the water for a living. With restaurants and the food service industry taking a big hit, the demand for various seafood products, including oysters, has been severely curtailed. A new partnership between the Nature Conservancy and the Pew Charitable Trusts is offering help for oyster farmers whose oysters have grown too big to market.

Governor Cuomo’s announcement on Friday that indoor dining in New York City would be curtailed as of Monday is the latest manifestation of a worsening Covid-19 crisis in the state, which now has an overall positive infection rate of 4.9 percent, but he emphasized that “living room spread” represents the majority of new infections.

Hospitals here and across the state are preparing for a second surge of Covid-19 patients as case numbers continue to climb, and also awaiting the first round of vaccines, which will go to front-line health workers. Governor Cuomo has mandated hospitals increase bed capacity by at least 25 percent, and Stony Brook Southampton Hospital has said it is prepared to double capacity as needed.

Statistics are showing that schools with Covid-19 protocols in place are among the safest places for children to be, but remaining open for in-person classes may depend on staffing. "If we close, that will be the reason we have to close -- that we don't have enough staff to cover classes," the East Hampton School District superintendent said.