Experts fear protests could worsen virus spread

Health experts concerned over impact on minority communities

Demonstrators around the region are protesting the killing of George Floyd, and the size of the gatherings has health experts concerned.

"I don't see how you could not be concerned when you see large groups of people in close proximity, screaming, chanting and yelling," said Dr. Bruce Farber, chief of infectious diseases at Northwell Health, the largest health system in the state. "It's all horrible, because they deserve to protest, but what happens when it leads to more cases, and then the secondary cases also go directly back to those communities?"

Some of the hardest-hit COVID-19 areas on Long Island have been minority neighborhoods such as Brentwood, Bay Shore and Huntington Station. 

Farber said he was slightly less concerned about Long Island communities being immediately impacted by a protest spread because there is less density at protests here.

"The spread is a density issue," he said, adding that the larger protests have taken place in large cities, including New York City, as well as Philadelphia, Atlanta and Washington D.C.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo called progress against COVID-19 in the state "a really amazing accomplishment" that is threatened by large gatherings where the virus could gain a foothold again.

“We should be very proud of what we’ve done, just don’t snatch defeat from the jaws of victory," Cuomo said. "Now we are seeing these mass gatherings over the past couple of nights, that could in fact exacerbate” the spread.

Search a map and view charts showing the latest local trends in testing, hospitalizations, deaths and more.

The numbers as of 3 p.m.: 40,479 confirmed cases in Nassau, 39,705 in Suffolk, 203,764 in New York City and 371,711 statewide.

New York making 'phenomenal' progress

Cuomo said New York has reached one of its best moments yet in the battle against the coronavirus, as the number of cases and deaths dropped to levels not seen since the start of the pandemic in March.

The latest figures show hospitalizations as measured on a three-day average reached "the lowest level" since the crisis started 93 days ago.

Cuomo said the state recorded "the lowest numbers of death that we’ve ever had at 54 … that number is dramatically different than what we’ve been looking at for many, many weeks" through the pandemic.

At its peak in early April, the daily death toll was nearly 800.

Cuomo said the progress also was underscored by the fact that the state was conducting only 3,000 or 4,000 tests a day at the start of the crisis. Now that figure is up to 50,000 a day.

Colleges consider what campuses might look like in the fall 

Long Island higher education officials are considering new approaches to campus life as institutions await state guidelines on conducting courses in the fall, when experts say a second wave of the coronavirus could possibly hit.

Come late August and September, college students could see kiosks with facial recognition technology that take their temperatures, courses with the flexibility of attending in-person or remotely and dorm rooms without roommates to comply with social distancing rules.

Reopening colleges in New York falls under Phase 4, the final part of the state's reopening plans. Cuomo said he plans to announce in June a decision on the fall semester for K-12 schools and higher education. 

“As much as people want to get together and start their lives again, we all know that here in Suffolk County this has been a very deadly disease, so we have to approach reopening the campuses with caution,” said Donald R. Boomgaarden, president of St. Joseph’s College, which has a campus in Patchogue.

Uptick in fatal drug overdoses during pandemic

An alarming spike in fatal drug overdoses on Long Island is linked to the coronavirus crisis, law enforcement and public health officials said.

Preliminary data in Suffolk County suggests a 40% year-to-date increase in fatal overdoses over the 89 deaths during the same period in 2019. 

In Nassau County, fatal overdoses have jumped at least 50% year to date from the 36 recorded during the same time period in 2019, said police Commissioner Patrick Ryder, also citing preliminary data.

Suffolk District Attorney Timothy Sini, Ryder and other officials blame the rise on the pandemic, which has pushed many people struggling with anxiety, loneliness, grief and fear to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol.

Steve Chassman, executive director of the Long Island Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence, which operates a 24-hour drug and alcohol hotline, attributes the spike to a heightened state of fear.

“We’ve seen about a 20% uptick in the last 10 weeks of people calling as a result of isolation, as a result of taking their substance use very progressively to misuse and into dependence,” he said.

Nurse goes home after 64 days in the hospital

Mirna Richard spent most of her 64 days of hospitalization from COVID-19 in an intensive care unit at Mather Hospital in Port Jefferson.

At times, the staff taking care of her weren’t sure if she was going to make it.

“She had a very rocky course,” said Marie Mulligan, the chief nursing officer and vice president for nursing services at Mather. “Every time we thought she was making progress, she slipped back into becoming more critical.”

But after more than two months of treatment at the hospital where she worked, the 55-year-old nurse was discharged Saturday to her home in Manorville.

As hospital workers pushed Richard out of the hospital on a stretcher, her family members and dozens of co-workers loudly cheered, clapping and waving balloons and handmade signs.

“I feel joy for my family. … I feel very happy,” said her husband, Daniel Dorval, adding the past two months has been difficult for the family.

More to know

Lifting restrictions could spark more traffic on already heavily traveled roads like the Long Island Expressway as more people opt out of the LIRR due to cost, convenience or worries about traveling with other people, transportation experts said. 

Public transportation users, advocates and labor leaders are skeptical about an MTA-proposed ticket reservation plan that would allow Long Island Rail Road riders to claim a seat on a train before leaving a station.

Northwell Health has opened two specialized, acute hospital recovery units, including one in Glen Cove, to help wean critically ill COVID-19 patients off ventilators.

The popular Chinese restaurant The Orient in Bethpage officially reopened today after a 10-week pause during the pandemic.

Elective surgeries are starting to take place for Long Islanders after many had been deferred since mid-March. 

Huntington Supervisor Chad Lupinacci says he wants to help guide small businesses on how to rebound economically from the pandemic with a Small Business Economic Recovery Task Force.

Cuomo and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates are now “re-imagining” education based on lessons learned during the pandemic that shut down schools for months.

News for you

DIY movie theaters. The pandemic and social distancing put a halt on getting to traditional brick-and-mortar theaters, but that doesn't mean you can't bring them to your own home. Outdoor home theaters aren't as expensive or difficult to put together as you might think. Here's how to create your own backyard movie theater.

Bagels on the move. Bagel Boss on Long Island has relaunched its shipping service, including a subscription box. It's offering several options to get fresh bagels delivered to your door and around the country.

A very Long Island TV special. Legends of the Long Island Music Hall of Fame shook up the programming on local news channels yesterday. “Supporting Healthcare Heroes,” a 90-minute, commercial-free music program, featured more than 20 LIMHOF inductees performing to honor local front-line workers.

A survival guide for parents. Join us for our latest free webinar tomorrow with local education and parenting experts for answers to your questions on kids, summer and the pandemic. Save your spot.

Plus: People heading out to parks for some space and serenity during the pandemic should beware of another danger: ticks. Here's what you need to know about tick season and how to avoid them.

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

You, too, can flap your wings. Indulge me a moment for a story, writes Michael Dobie in his latest Newsday Opinion column.

This one takes place in 1961 in an office at MIT. A mathematics and meteorology professor, Edward Lorenz, is using an early generation computer to run a weather simulation.

His model uses 12 variables like wind speed and temperature, and Lorenz decides he wants to rerun part of one of his simulations. So he reenters the data, starts the program and leaves to get a cup of coffee.

When he returns, the simulated weather patterns over a two-month period have been dramatically transformed.

Lorenz, it turned out, had rounded off one of the variables he reentered from .506127 to .506. The change it produced was immense. And from that discovery, Lorenz came up with the insight we now know as the butterfly effect.

That discovery — that a small change in an initial condition can produce a large change in a long-term outcome — was hugely important and became the founding principle of chaos theory, a very influential branch of mathematics.

It also became part of pop culture thanks to the terminology Lorenz adopted to explain his finding. You no doubt have heard variations over the years: The flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil can cause a tornado in Texas.

The butterfly effect comes to mind as we struggle to deal with the coronavirus crisis.