Four out of five East Hampton Middle School students agree: Going to school during the Covid-19 pandemic is tougher than it was before. Also, a disclaimer: In no way is that a scientific statistic, as the sample size was pretty limited, but the point is still accurate, according to the students themselves.

"There were more things to do that we can't do now," Emma Hand, a sixth grader, recalled during a Google Meet interview last week. "It's a little bit harder, but at least we get to go to school."

"Living room" spread of Covid-19 now accounts for about 75 percent of the virus’s transmission, New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said on Monday afternoon as he announced fine-tuned vaccination programs and precautions against the threat of a new Covid-19 strain spreading overseas. “Everything else is relatively de minimis” in terms of the risk of spreading the virus, he said, “and we’re in the heat of the holiday season.”