Villages

A brigade of sewers and cutters is turning donated fabric into 1,600 protective masks outfitted with surgical-grade filters for East Hampton health care workers, first responders, and essential personnel in the town and village.

At one point the county was seeing at or more than 1,000 new confirmed cases every day. From Monday to Tuesday, that number dropped to 587, the lowest since March 26.

The ferries connecting the South and North Forks with Shelter Island now require that all customers wear a mask or facial covering, even inside their cars.

On Sunday afternoon, County Executive Steve Bellone reported receiving word of 132 more deaths, bringing the county's total to 825.

Confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Suffolk County jumped by more than 1,200 to 26,702, but hospitalizations in the county have been down for the past three days, indicating a possible plateau.

A team of more than 100 people have been rushing to provide medical workers with 10,000 isolation gowns, which have been in high demand and short supply as the Covid-19 pandemic rages.

On Thursday, as confirmed cases of Covid-19 neared 222,300 and deaths across the state climbed above 12,000, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo extended the New York State on PAUSE executive order to May 15. Schools and nonessential businesses will remain closed and social distancing restrictions will remain in place.

The task force's mission is to "work together with the White House to chart the path forward toward a future of unparalleled American prosperity," amid an economic contraction that has seen 22 million new claims for unemployment insurance in the past four weeks.

Diana Balnis, a family portrait photographer, found a way to turn a time when she is not allowed to work as she usually does into a time to use her work as a way to do good.     

Chef Jill Hamill has quite the following on YouTube lately. In just a few days, a handful of her cooking videos have racked up hundreds of views and subscribers.

Just last week, Suffolk County began offering text message updates specifically in Spanish and opened “targeted testing sites” to help those who speak languages other than English. The county also began reaching out to non-English speaking communities through nonprofit and faith-based organizations to get the word out about those testing sites, which opened in Riverhead, Huntington Station, and Brentwood — all communities with large populations of minority residents.

The East Hampton Chamber of Commerce is offering free 30-minute virtual appointments to help small businesses apply for loans the federal government has made available for those economically impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.