For the second day in a row, the trend of total coronavirus hospitalizations in Suffolk County has increased, halting a downward trend that had lasted 12 days.
Since April 16, the county’s total hospitalizations have decreased almost every day, with an average of 50 fewer patients each day. The only exception was April 21, when hospitalizations increased by 24 patients — otherwise, total hospitalizations have decreased between 15 and 143 patients every day.
That changed yesterday, when county officials reported the county’s total coronavirus hospitalizations had increased by four. Today, that number jumped by 18.
“This is something I’m very concerned about,” County Executive Steve Bellone said at his briefing today. “We don’t want to see these numbers increasing. We don’t even want to be plateauing at this point. We want that downward trend to continue.”
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Total ICU patients and intubations in the county continued to decrease, Bellone said, but health officials have previously noted a lag between new hospital admissions, intubations and fatalities.
“This is not the way we wanted to come across the finish line,” Bellone said.
As New York State looks toward the possibility of reopening some regions May 15, county officials are paying close attention to the trend in total coronavirus hospitalizations, as a steady decline in hospitalizations is necessary for two of the seven requirements for a region to reopen.
As of yesterday, Long Island meets fewer of those requirements than any other region in the state — only two of the seven criteria to reopen.
New York City meets three, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s daily press briefing yesterday.
One requirement Long Island currently does fulfill is a 14-day decline in hospitalizations, or fewer than 15 new hospitalizations a day (on a three-day average).
As of now, Suffolk County still meets that requirement. If the trend of increased hospitalizations in Suffolk continues beyond these two days, however, it could put Long Island at risk of failing to meet even that requirement, as it is measured on a three-day rolling average.
In Nassau County, total coronavirus hospitalizations have decreased for 20 days in a row, Nassau County Executive Laura Curran reported this morning.
“We are doing the work necessary now to prepare for that reopening downstate, when we are ready and when we hit those metrics,” Bellone said.
But he added that he is “a little discouraged” by the increase in hospitalizations over the past two days.
“If we’re plateauing at that level, those are bad numbers,” he said. “That means we are plateauing at a high level right before we reopen the economy, and we’re uncertain about what the impact would be on our infection rate.”
Suffolk County has so far reported 38,243 infections, which includes 2,563 patients who have tested positive for coronavirus antibodies.
Almost 3,600 people have died from coronavirus across Long Island since the beginning of the outbreak, including 1,347 in Suffolk County.
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