Coronavirus

Ed Porco, a former Montauk resident who had been living at Peconic Landing on the North Fork with his wife, Joan, died of Covid-19 on Tuesday at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said Friday that eight more people in the county had died from COVID-19. There are now 331 cases across Suffolk.

An order by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has extended the distance-learning measure at least until April 15.

The state revised an executive order on Friday to halt all nonessential construction during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Arts organizations including the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center, Bay Street Theater, and the Parrish Art Museum have modified their educational programs for families and children to offer them digitally and free of charge. 

“We need to support those on the front lines of crisis, particularly the health care workers,” Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said. “None of us have direct experience with this, even in my 27 years of government experience I’ve never faced anything like it.”

East Hampton Village has its third confirmed case of COVID-19, Mayor Richard Lawler announced in a statement on Thursday, and there are now 2,735 confirmed cases countywide, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said in his daily update on the crisis. 
       

East Hampton Town’s essential services are functioning, despite mandates to reduce staffing and implement the social distancing practices critical to controlling the now-explosive growth in COVID-19 infections in the tristate area. 

With the full wave of COVID-19 patients still expected to be a few weeks out in New York State, Suffolk hospitals are scrambling to add beds, local medical professionals are feeling taxed, equipment is in short supply, and officials are worried that the public is not taking the threat of infection seriously enough.

In learning to cope with the shutdown of public assembly and commercial activity amid a health emergency, many profess a new appreciation for life and its myriad joys. 

Unable to sell a 1,000-pound catch of fluke last week, Capt. Chuck Morici of the dragger Act 1 spent three days filleting the fish at Montauk commercial dock and offering it for free straight from his boat. On Saturday morning, he gave it away from the back of his pickup truck in downtown Montauk, a big handwritten sign announcing, “Free Fish.”

As Covid-19 continues to spread, first responders on the South Fork are continuing to work, albeit while taking extra precautions.