Coronavirus

One case of Covid-19 in the first grade at the John M. Marshall Elementary School last week wasn't enough to shut down school in East Hampton, but a second case in second grade, confirmed on Tuesday, led school officials to close the entire district Wednesday. That afternoon, the district informed parents that students who share the classroom with the Covid-positive second grader and that classroom's head teacher will have to quarantine for 14 days.

After being notified of a second confirmed case of Covid-19 in a student at the John M. Marshall Elementary School, the East Hampton School District has decided to close the elementary school, middle school, and high school on Wednesday "out of an abundance of caution," the district said in an email and voice memo sent to parents on Tuesday afternoon.

Without federal assistance, the county will be forced to make significant reductions in transit services in the 2021 budget, and could eliminate 19 bus routes, including the 10C, which loops between East Hampton and Montauk, and the 10B, which loops between East Hampton, Springs, and Bridgehampton.

The East Hampton School District on Saturday announced that what had been a suspected case of Covid-19 in a student is now a confirmed case at John M. Marshall Elementary School.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo delivered some of his sharpest criticism of President Trump and his administration’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic on Thursday, repeatedly calling the federal government’s response incompetent and accusing the president of politicizing and lying about the crisis. 

There's still a touch of summer in the East Hampton air, which is a fitting backdrop to the summer-style, off-season sports workouts that will resume this coming week in the East Hampton School District.

Temperatures are cooling and concern over the coronavirus persists as fall begins, but restaurants in the Town of East Hampton may have an opportunity to extend an unprecedented tourist season by continuing to offer as much as 100 percent of their seating capacity outside.

As to the process of preparing for this unprecedented school year, James Crenshaw said he has a tendency to approach anything by planning for everything. "The understanding is that you're probably going to miss a ton of things," and by going into overdrive at the beginning, there are fewer surprises along the way.

A Southampton Elementary School student has contracted Covid-19, according to the School Covid Report Card, a state website that tracks cases in public and private schools and colleges, but the student had not been on campus and classes had not yet begun before the diagnosis.

Records obtained this week by this newspaper show that Southampton Town has levied three formal charges against one of the event companies that produced a July 25 concert in Water Mill by the Chainsmokers, the chart-topping duo of D.J.s known for catchy electronica anthems and collaborations with other popular artists.

What happened when Covid turned summer frosty? What did people do instead? The pandemic kept many people apart, but it also brought some back together. Some pulled up stakes, some finally put down new roots, and some found the resolve to tackle the next stage of life.

As the humid heat of summer finally starts to give way to crisp autumn mornings, the health care community in general starts to think ahead to the coming winter months when respiratory viruses begin to run amok. 

Since its implementation last year, the Suffolk311 call center for non-emergency inquiries has received over 110,000 calls from residents across the county, 91,661 of them between March and September of this year.

Motivated by the patterns of tobacco use among their peers, a student group called Breathe In Change is renewing its efforts to educate other students about the dangers of tobacco use — including cigarettes in addition to e-cigarettes, according to the students.

"It was too nice of a day, and too good of a band," Mayor Kathleen Mulcahy said of the WLNG-sponsored event on Saturday that was to feature sets by the HooDoo Loungers and Gene Casey and the Lone Sharks. At one point Sag Harbor police counted 175 people in attendance, more than triple the number allowed at outdoor gatherings under an executive order issued by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

With an influx of vacationers, migrant Manhattanites, and day trippers who ventured east this summer, restaurateurs worked tirelessly to apply the state's health guidelines in ways that could fit their new business models, but even the most prepared in the restaurant industry sometimes struggled to keep up.

After discovering their employees had tested positive for Covid-19, a handful of restaurants in Montauk temporarily closed up shop late last month and early this month to deep clean and retest employees before reopening for business.

I hope that if any of you know anyone who may be struggling with addiction during the pandemic, you might find a quiet moment to offer encouragement, to ask if there's anything you can do to help. Sometimes that's all it takes to get someone headed in the right direction.

The course of true love never did run smooth: Book lovers with devoted book clubs are doing everything in their power, even mastering new technology, to keep up with meetings in the age of coronavirus. What Zoom lacks in dimension, dimensional conversation makes up for.

As of Tuesday, with the daily Covid-19 infection rate on Long Island hovering around 1.5 percent, school sports are still a go starting on Sept. 21. On Wednesday, the New York State Department of Health released further guidelines governing each sport, clarifying that football, volleyball, rugby, and now cheerleading will not start until March 1, 2021.

New York State school districts must now report confirmed cases of Covid-19 to a state Department of Health website that will be publicly accessible by the start of the school year.

As this "summer like no other" neared its unofficial close, the East Hampton Town Board announced new phases of a communications campaign aimed at maintaining the suppression of Covid-19 transmission.

Haunted houses, corn mazes, and apples, oh my!

New state guidelines announced earlier this week mean that beloved fall activities including corn mazes, apple and pumpkin picking, and haunted houses will be able to open for New Yorkers to enjoy as early as Saturday. 

"The new guidance announced today will ensure that these businesses can open to the public, allowing families to enjoy their favorite fall activities while providing a boost for our farming communities and local economies," Gov. Cuomo said in a release on Tuesday.

The Ross School announced Saturday it will require each student to have a negative Covid-19 test within seven days of the start of school before he or she can attend in person. No child will be able to start school without such a test.

We tend to ask just about everyone we think could even possibly have some sort of serious event requiring CPR or intubation what their wishes are. The reason for that? Because experience has taught me, over and over again, to tackle these questions at the beginning.

The first day of school for Bridgehampton students is now Monday, Sept. 14, after the school board voted this week to alter the calendar.

School officials have said Chromebook laptops for students are on back order across the nation and Plexiglas barriers for desks have been hard to come by. Local school boards have appointed many previous substitute teachers to full-time positions, creating a shortage of those who can be called upon to fill in for teachers who take time off. Custodians, too, are in short supply for some districts as schools embark on plans that rely upon stringent cleaning protocols.

It is back to school season for college students too, but as with many things during a pandemic, it may not really feel like it. "It's obviously not ideal, but learning how to manage expectations is just a part of life," said a University of Iowa junior from Southampton.

Project Most, a nonprofit that runs programs for elementary-age children in Springs and East Hampton, will for the first time offer a daytime program during the school year for Springs School students in kindergarten through eighth grade to supplement the two days a week of in-person learning that the children will be receiving.

"If we do not receive federal funding, there is no way that the state and local governments can cover the deficit," the governor said Monday, citing "catastrophic budget shortfalls" that could impact thousands of workers.