Saying he hopes it is a number that can be sustained, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone on Thursday reported just one death from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours. The county death toll is now 1,916.
“We have not been down to that level since the third week in March,” Mr. Bellone said. “I am certainly looking forward to the day that that number goes down to zero.”
There have been 40,153 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Suffolk since the beginning of the outbreak, he said, and an additional 14,778 cases that have been detected through antibody tests.
Hospital capacity is at 65 percent and intensive care unit capacity is at 53 percent, keeping the county in line with reopening metrics as phase two nears. Those statistics must not climb above 70 percent, or there may be adjustments to the reopening plan, officials have said. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Thursday said phase two is expected to begin on Long Island on Wednesday, June 10.
Mr. Bellone returned to a subject he introduced earlier in the week: fiscal impact projections from a municipal finance group that has analyzed the economics of Covid-19 here. Suffolk County could face as much as a $1.5 billion deficit over the next two years as a result of the pandemic, including a $590 million deficit this year alone.
“The numbers and the situation so far are beyond anything we have seen before,” Mr. Bellone said. “That’s not surprising given that everything that has been happening is unprecedented in modern times. Sales taxes have plunged, which is our primary source of revenue, while at the same time, our expenses have never been greater.”
To put that in context, elsewhere in the state, he said Erie County is now expecting a $138 million gap and the city of Syracuse went from having a projected $1.5 million surplus to a $19 million deficit.
Mr. Bellone has instructed departments in Suffolk County to reduce costs by at least 5 percent across the board, which would yield $60 million in savings, but he said there will need to be “hard choices” made in addition to those cuts. He called upon the federal government to help local municipalities like counties dig themselves out of the Covid-19 related holes they are now in financially.
“We know Congress needs to act,” Mr. Bellone said.