Coronavirus

Sag Harbor's Board of Education, faced with a student petition to overturn a recent decision by the district superintendent, Jeff Nichols, not to let Pierson High student-athletes compete this winter in "high-risk" sports, once again seconded the superintendent at a meeting Monday night.

In the first of two rounds of Covid-19 testing at the Springs School, there were no positive results in the 55 people tested, the school district announced Monday.

Organizacion Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island has been chosen as the New York State Project HOPE provider for the East End and now has two crisis counselor teams able to offer assistance in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Two days after being released from Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, where he had spent nine days fighting Covid-19, Village Mayor Jerry Larsen discussed the status of proposals for paid parking and the construction of a wastewater treatment plant, the recent increase in fees for beach parking and several other permits, the tensions that have arisen at village board meetings, and more.

As East End residents face an ongoing lack of access to the Covid-19 vaccine, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and other local officials vented their frustration this week with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's handling of the state's vaccination program, and offered recommendations for fixing it.

In many ways, there are few things in medicine as dangerous as the passage of time. By this, I mean that inexorable movement toward a place where the status quo holds reign. Patients who come in to discuss their concerns about a recent 5 or 10-pound weight gain over a month or two will often be fired up with the desire to make positive changes in their lives.

Data released Monday by New York State shows the seven-day average rate of positive Covid-19 cases in Suffolk County has been ticking downward now for nearly a month. The rate reflects the number of cases that are positive as a percentage of the total tests administered.

There are a number of questions as to why local doctors' offices haven't yet been able to vaccinate people 65 and older, when health care providers expect to be able to do so, and what has been taking so long.

Jeff Nichols, the Sag Harbor School District superintendent, reported Thursday that there is actually evidence of school-related transmission in these two cases — an unusual finding given that that has not been the case in most other school districts on the South Fork.

Following the big new this week that "high-risk" sports, namely boys and girls basketball, wrestling, and competitive cheerleading, could begin a foreshortened season on Monday, South Fork school districts grappled with whether that was in their students' best interests.

For East End residents hoping to book an appointment online for a vaccination at Stony Brook University, the nearest state-run site, the message has been a consistent: "No appointments available." On the websites of urgent care facilities in Riverhead and Huntington run by Northwell Health, which is overseeing vaccine administration on Long Island, the message is even less encouraging.

High-risk high school sports including wrestling, basketball, and competitive cheerleading can resume again in Suffolk, County Executive Steve Bellone announced Monday. The season will run from Feb. 1 through Feb. 27.