The number of Covid-19 hospitalizations in Suffolk County rose in the past 24 hours, marking an end to 13 straight days of declining hospitalizations, and possibly dealing a setback to the plans to reopen after the governor's New York State on Pause mandate is set to expire on May 15.
There are now 817 people in hospitals in the county, up 4 from Sunday. The slight increase may prove to be an anomaly in the midst of an ongoing decline, County Executive Steve Bellone said at his daily press briefing.
One of the benchmarks for safely emerging from the pandemic shutdown is 14 straight days of declining hospitalizations, according to national and state health agencies. Now that the county has missed that mark, the 14-day clock does not reset to zero, Mr. Bellone said, but a three-day average will be factored in. "I'm confident, we'll meet that metric," he said.
Thirty-three people were discharged from hospitals, a disappointingly low number that also went against recent trends.
The number of deaths increased by 17 to 1,273 since Sunday, and the number of positive cases rose 563 to 37,537. The latter number, said Mr. Bellone, includes those that antibody testing has confirmed had the virus but were not previously diagnosed with it.
The county reported 217 confirmed Covid-19 cases in East Hampton Town as of Monday afternoon, 762 in Southampton Town, 481 in Riverhead, and 6 on Shelter Island.