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Covid-19: Estimate Given For Long Island Reopening Time Frame

If you're looking for a time frame for reopening of the economy on Long Island during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran has provided just that.

The Suffolk County COVID-19 map on Friday, May 8.

The Suffolk County COVID-19 map on Friday, May 8.

Photo Credit: Suffolk County
The Nassau County COVID-19 map on Friday, May 8.

The Nassau County COVID-19 map on Friday, May 8.

Photo Credit: Nassau County

“Just to give you a rough estimate, our back-of-the-envelope number, we could get there probably by the end of June,” Curran said at her daily news briefing on Friday afternoon, May 8. 

Long Island hospitalization rates have been heading in the right direction, though there continue to be hundreds of newly reported positive cases each day. 

“It’s not about the timeline," said Curran. "It’s about when we meet the criteria."

To that end, Nassau has seen 13 straight days of declining hospitalizations.

"That means we need one more day of declining hospitalizations to check that very important box for the CDC protocols for Phase 1 of reopening," Curran said.

Criteria outlined by the Centers for Disease Control for reopening calls for:

  • Downward trajectory of influenza-like illnesses (ILI) reported within a 14-day period and downward trajectory of covid-like syndromic cases reported within a 14-day period
  • Downward trajectory of documented cases within a 14-day period and downward trajectory of positive tests as a percent of total tests within a 14-day period (flat or increasing volume of tests)
  • Hospitals have the capacity to treat all patients without crisis care
  • Robust testing program in place for at-risk healthcare workers, including emerging antibody testing

In Nassau, 111,917 residents have been tested for COVID-19, with 37,812 testing positive and 1,918 deaths. There have been a total of 109,112 Suffolk County residents tested for COVID-19, resulting in 36,223 positive tests and 1,568 fatalities.

Hempstead still has the highest volume of cases (1,939) in Nassau, followed by Freeport (1,407), Elmont (1,149), Valley Stream (1,037), Uniondale (1,026), Levittown (907), Hicksville (880), East Meadow (808), Glen Cove (747), Franklin Square (700), Long Beach (671), Baldwin (608), Roosevelt (560), Woodmere (542), North Valley Stream (535), New Cassel (530), and Oceanside (502).

In the most recent data, Suffolk had 264 newly reported cases and Nassau had 219 new cases.

In Suffolk, Islip leads the way with 11,528 COVID-19 cases, ahead of Brookhaven (8,777), Babylon (6,546), Huntington (4,855), and Smithtown (2,314). More than 250 cases were also reported in Southampton, Riverhead, Southold, and East Hampton.

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