The long road to recovery

Health care workers wave through the windows of NYU Winthrop...

Health care workers wave through the windows of NYU Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola as another COVID-19 patient is discharged. Credit: Howard Schnapp

After 14 days on a ventilator, COVID-19 patient Robert Sidberry ripped the plastic tube out of his mouth, setting off all kinds of alarms and bells.

Doctors found he could breathe sufficiently without the device and, after another week, he went home. But COVID-19 leveled such a beating on his body that the 55-year-old said he came home and spent several days in bed hooked to an oxygen machine.

He couldn’t walk more than a few steps, and physical rehabilitation left him so weak he needed the oxygen again.

And he's not alone. COVID-19 is proving to be a hard fighter against the human body.

Beyond the lungs, doctors are now finding it can strike at the kidneys, heart, liver and even the brain. And while the damage is especially tough on older people, even younger adults are finding they need additional care.

Shutting down the subways

New York City subway riders wear protective masks.

New York City subway riders wear protective masks. Credit: Bloomberg/Michael Nagle

New York will shut down its subway system from 1 to 5 a.m. to clean up the city's entire fleet of trains every 24 hours and avoid exposing essential workers to coronavirus, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said.

"This is as ambitious as anything that we have ever undertaken" and will require "multiple agencies working together," he said of the service suspension that begins Wednesday.

Cuomo said the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North lines can do the cleaning work "without any disruption" due to lower demand.

Antibody tests ramping up

A person undergoes antibody testing at a site outside Delmont Medical Care...

A person undergoes antibody testing at a site outside Delmont Medical Care in Franklin Square. Credit: Howard Schnapp

Answers to the monthslong mystery of who may have secretly carried the coronavirus could be solved through blood tests by the state and private testing firms, but questions remain of just how accurate the profile may be. 

The state’s antibody tests are providing the largest sample to date, with more than 8,000 tested and results showing infection rates in some areas exceeding 20%.

The tests detect specified antibodies that usually develop three to four weeks after infection, though it’s still uncertain whether the antibodies are produced at the same rate and are long lasting.

Those who receive the test get one of three results: reactive, nonreactive and indeterminate.

Dozens of Long Island labs and walk-in clinics recently began offering antibody tests, and the companies said the initial response has been considerable.

See a graphical explanation of how antibodies work.

The numbers as of 3 p.m.: 35,854 confirmed cases in Nassau, 33,664 in Suffolk, 167,478 in New York City and 304,372 statewide.

Nursing home staffer dies

Efrain Pineda, of East Meadow, died of coronavirus complications on...

Efrain Pineda, of East Meadow, died of coronavirus complications on April 2. Credit: Alexa Pineda

For decades, Efrain Pineda was a reliable and good-natured member of the housekeeping staff at Glengariff Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in Glen Cove. 

Some years, he worked second and third jobs too. But after a lifetime of work, he was due to retire May 31, said his eldest son, and the family planned a party to celebrate his retirement and his 70th birthday later this year.

He didn’t live to see it. Pineda collapsed and died at his East Meadow home in the arms of his wife and son after he had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and told to quarantine at home. 

Read his story and learn about other Long Islanders who lost their lives due to the virus. 

And if you are mourning a loved one who died from COVID-19, help us share their story.

The lift they needed

Eve Miceli uses a cherry picker to visit her mother at...

Eve Miceli uses a cherry picker to visit her mother at the St. James Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center. Credit: St. James Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center

The few short blocks between them had grown into a lifetime.

Eve Miceli had been unable to visit her mom because the nearby health care center where her mother lived in St. James was closed to visitors going on six weeks.

Eve's husband, John, racked his brain, trying to come up with a way his wife could spend time with her 87-year-old mother.

What if they got a cherry picker bucket truck? 

The musician, who's played with Meat Loaf, Brian May of Queen,and other stars, isn't known to fans as "Mighty" John Miceli for nothing.

He vowed to make the visit happen.

More to know

SymptomSense can check for signs of illness in a matter of...

SymptomSense can check for signs of illness in a matter of seconds.   Credit: Newsday / John Paraskevas; Soter Technologies

A new walk-through scanner that can check the temperature, respiration rate and blood oxygen level of hundreds of people an hour is attracting intense interest from sports leagues, cruise lines and countries around the world, its Long Island developer says.

Long Island University students are petitioning to change the college's virtual commencement ceremony to a formal graduation.

A funeral home in Brooklyn overwhelmed by coronavirus resorted to storing dozens of bodies in rented trucks, officials said after police were called to the neighborhood for a complaint about the smell.

Gerard Terry, a longtime power broker in the Nassau County Democratic Party, has become the second prominent Long Island politician to be released this week from a federal prison due to the pandemic, records show.

More than 2,500 laptops and Wi-Fi equipment were donated to local school districts by a Latino advocacy group to help schoolchildren trying to keep up with their studies at home.

Derek Jeter’s first-ballot entry to the Hall of Fame is going to require a second year to play out on the Cooperstown stage as the pandemic has postponed this year’s induction ceremony.

News for you

Michelle LaBozzetta and Brian Smith will perform the short play...

Michelle LaBozzetta and Brian Smith will perform the short play "Taking Some Lumps" on "Theatre Three Off-Stage/On-Line." Credit: Theatre Three Productions Inc./Eric J. Hughes

The shows must go on. If you miss attending local theater, the company of Theatre Three in Port Jefferson is bringing the performances into your home. It will be streaming a twice-a-week series of short, original plays ranging "from comedic to serious."

A new burger joint. Burgerology has been slowly expanding eastward, and no pandemic is going to stop it. The third Long Island location opened this week in Patchogue in what the owner is calling a "pop-up" location, for now.

Filing for unemployment. Applying for unemployment benefits can be overwhelming now, with hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers doing the same. Here are answers to common questions.

Best of the decade. Running out of ideas of what to watch during your time at home? Our critic looked through the wide range of movies released during the 2000s and picked a winner from each year.

Free food. Restaurateurs are working hard to keep afloat but know many of you are suffering, too. Check out our updated list of local eateries offering free food to those in need.

Plus: Connect with locals in your community who need help or who can provide assistance, using our message board.

Get real-time updates about the virus' impact on the Island by visiting our live blog, and watch our latest daily wrap-up video.

Commentary

A vaccination magic bullet? One of the many myths being advanced by some governments, including our own, and then repeated by the media is that a vaccine will set us free from the coronavirus in 18 months, Arthur L. Caplan, the director of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York University's Grossman School of Medicine, writes in a Newsday Opinion column.

The key issues confronting efforts to vaccinate our way out of the ongoing viral plague are: success, scope, effectiveness, duration, distribution, cost and safety.

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