Villages

When the staff at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital was challenged to a "dance break" two weeks ago by a sister hospital on the North Fork, they rose to the challenge. The result? An uplifting, energetic, three-minute video that has been posted on YouTube, gathering nearly 4,000 views in the last two days.

Everyone donned masks for the challenge, in which nurses, doctors, aides, technicians, and other employees moved to the song "I Got This Feeling" by Justin Timberlake. Most of it was shot outdoors, though some of the staff got their groove on in the hospital hallways.

East Hampton Memorial Day observances, including the annual parade, rifle squad ceremonies at cemeteries, and a tribute to the lost at sea at Main Beach, will be canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bobby Hopson, the Bridgehampton High School basketball team's career scoring leader and a Wagner College standout, died on Tuesday. The cause was diabetes-related.

In the past 24 hours, 891 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Suffolk County, marking a drop-off from the surprising spike of 1,039 cases reported on Friday.

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. 

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 East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection holds two large oral history collections. The Maritime Folklife collection includes over 100 interviews with fishermen and their families from the 1980s.

While the Covid-19 pandemic has brought business at East End hotels to a virtual standstill, several owners said this week that they are expecting an influx of guests this summer and will retool operations to accommodate them safely.

As increasing numbers face food insecurity here, people are helping to feed those in need through food pantries, community partnerships, and a new food fund that also aids essential workers and local restaurants.

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.

His images of the deaths of thousands of elephants and other wildlife Kenya became the basis for the 1965 book "The End of the Game," which influenced a generation of artists and wildlife conservationists.

The recently passed federal CARES Act allows mortgage holders to delay payments on federally backed mortgages for up to 180 days, but it doesn't cover those whose mortgages are not federally owned or backed.

“It was a war. I would not wish this experience on anyone,” Stephen Rosen said, but family, friends, faith, and good fortune helped him and his wife get through it.

Couples all over have been left scrambling, deciding either to call off or reschedule their weddings as pandemic-related closures persist.

Beaches raise the question of safety not only for beachgoers but for lifeguards, and the town is pondering whether or how it can keep beaches and parks open while protecting employees and the public and avoiding a subsequent wave of Covid-19 infection.

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.

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. 

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.

The Rev. Jim Erwin said parishioners or any member of the public can donate canned goods, dried goods such as cereal and snacks, and toiletries in the outdoor box, and then those in need can stop by any time of day or night.   

Suzanne Kirby’s health care practice offers chiropractic and homeopathic medicine; muscle, exercise, and bio-magnetic therapy; noninvasive acupuncture and auriculotherapy; nutritional assessment, kinesiology, and laser therapy.

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.

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.

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.