Villages

Covid-19 has cast a long shadow over the health care industry, and there’s a sense of trepidation and anxiety among the 65 practical nurses who are graduating Thursday from their Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services program. But there’s also a sense of hope and purpose among the graduates.

The restaurants and taverns that host their performances have been shuttered for more than a month, but technology is providing South Fork musicians with multiple avenues to be heard and seen, make money, and do good.

Bruce Howard, a familiar face around the Montauk Post Office for 38 years, retired last month, fully intending to move on March 31 to a little cottage in a medieval walled town called Guerande, on a sea-salt farm in Brittany, France, where he plans to keep bees and make honey. 

Suffolk County's number of new confirmed Covid-19 cases went up again on Wednesday to 844, contributing to a new total of 29,588, and an end to a three-day decline in new cases.

County Executive Steve Bellone acknowledged in Wednesday's press briefing that this was an increase from the 587 cases reported on Tuesday, which had been the lowest number of positive daily test results achieved since March 26. 

East Hampton Town will begin enforcing summer beach parking regulations on Friday, April 24, weeks earlier than the regulations usually take effect, in order to forestall overcrowding at beaches and in parks during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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.