Coronavirus case confirmed in Riverhead, as first two deaths reported in Suffolk County

A coronavirus case has been confirmed in Riverhead Town, Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller. The individual is recovering at home, he said.

Suffolk County today reported the first two deaths from the novel coronavirus: a man in his 80s at St. Catherine’s Hospital and a man in his 90s at Huntington Hospital. Both had underlying conditions besides their advanced age, according to County Executive Steve Bellone. 

There are 74 confirmed cases in the county, but the county executive said he expects that number to rise significantly as more people are tested. 

Suffolk’s confirmed cases as of this afternoon, as per the county health department:

• Babylon – 10
• Brookhaven – 10
• East Hampton – 2
• Huntington – 17
• Islip – 7
• Riverhead – 1
• Smithtown – 3
• Southampton – 2
• Southold – 22

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“It is clear based on the numbers that the virus is already here present in the community,” he said. “It’s simply the lack of broad testing that has kept the numbers down,“ he said. ”And despite the limited amount of testing, the numbers continue to rise.“

Several top Suffolk County officials have been quarantined, included the commissioner of health, following the diagnosis of the disease in Deputy County Executive Peter Scully, Bellone said today, during a conference call with reporters. 

Bellone is himself in voluntary quarantine because of his contact with Health Commissioner Gregson Pigott. Bellone has not yet been tested, he said. If Pigott’s test is positive, the county executive will be tested. Meanwhile he is working at home, where, he said, his immediate family is sick with the seasonal flu. Both Bellone and Pigott said they are asymptomatic.

The county’s management of the situation is not being affected, Bellone said. Staff members are working from their homes. 

Two Town of Riverhead employees are on mandatory quarantine because they attended a meeting in a county building in Hauppauge last week that might have been impacted by the virus, Hegermiller said.

The county is focusing its efforts on long-term planning, Bellone said. “We don’t know how long this will take. We don’t know how long we will be doing this work,” he said.

The county executive said the county is working with school officials to develop plans to continue to serve meals to children who need them. The county is also working to develop plans for child care in light of the two-week county-wide school closings announced yesterday.

“We’re addressing the need for child care, particularly for our healthcare workers and our first responders so that we can keep them working,” Bellone said.