Coronavirus

Free P.C.R. saliva testing for Covid-19 is now offered on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the East Hampton Town Center for Humanity, the former Child Development Center of the Hamptons, at 110 Stephen Hand's Path.

All you parents who wonder if it's just you who needs to cajole, bribe, and beg your children to get them to comply medical advice should take comfort in knowing that even physicians have to contort themselves into a thousand pretzel-like caricatures of parenting in order to get their kids to follow the doctor's orders.

Sixteen full-time health care workers at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital who had not received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by Monday have been suspended without pay and will be fired if they don’t get vaccinated within 30 days, hospital officials said on Tuesday.

The big question on everyone's lips this month seems to be whether or not they should receive a third (in the case of the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccines) or second (if they opted for the Johnson and Johnson vaccine) "booster" dose against Covid-19.

Despite a high vaccination rate in the town and statewide, the positive infection rate reported by the testing sites at Town Hall and in Montauk more than tripled in August, from 4 to 13 percent of those tested receiving a positive diagnosis. Between Sept. 14 and 19, the positive rate was 12.2 percent among 1,263 tests in East Hampton and 13.5 percent among 370 tests in Montauk.

In so many ways, the fact that we are still having to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic feels like a kick to the gut, but here we are. At this juncture in the pandemic, it is worthwhile to once again review some of the current public health guidelines aimed at stopping the spread and protecting yourself and your community.

"We all want this to be over," New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Wednesday as she announced a mask mandate for child care centers, residential health programs, and other state-run health facilities as well as a vaccination initiative that will enable emergency medical technicians to administer Covid-19 shots.

Booster shots of Covid-19 vaccines may be on the horizon, but until the federal Food and Drug Administration determines whether additional doses are safe and effective for the general population, only people with moderately or severely impaired immune systems should seek a third dose, according to health care professionals.

Citing the highly transmissible Delta variant of Covid-19, East Hampton Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc announced Thursday that the town board will return to virtual meetings as of Tuesday. The variant "is significant within the community at this time. It’s spreading rapidly, and people need to really take this seriously,” he said.

An East Hampton medical practice is participating in a research project aimed at accelerating medical breakthroughs for Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne infectious disease in the United States and one of several illnesses that can be transmitted by an infected tick. 

Kids agreed that wearing masks is a small price to pay for what they hope is a normal school year filled with meaningful classroom activities, academics, field trips, and friendships.

Just a week into the fall sports season, one East Hampton High School football player has tested positive for Covid-19 and is in quarantine, the district announced Sunday morning.