CDC issues guidance on attending protests and other large gatherings: wear a mask

As people around the country are participating in mass protests against racial injustice and police brutality, the federal Centers for Disease Control yesterday released a new guidance document concerning attendance at such gatherings.

The document, “Considerations for Events and Gatherings,” encourages all who attend large gatherings to wear face coverings, as per existing CDC guidelines.

New York State has made it mandatory for people to wear masks in most public places and settings.

Recent mass protests and the reopening of businesses have heightened concern among public health officials about an escalation of coronavirus infections. The disease caused by the virus has already claimed more than 114,500 American lives. In Suffolk, which reported its first COVID-19 death on March 16, the death toll from the disease is now approaching 2,000.

The number of new confirmed cases statewide and in Suffolk continues to decline, as the rate of transmission of the disease in New York has fallen to a new low, Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported yesterday.

COVID hospitalizations — and new COVID admissions — also continue to fall. As of Thursday, there were 125 COVID patients hospitalized, County Executive Steve Bellone reported yesterday. Thirty-nine COVID patients were in intensive care units.

There were just four COVID patients being treated in Peconic Bay Medical Center as of yesterday, PBMC president and CEO Andrew Mitchell said in a phone interview. At the peak of the outbreak in April, the number of COVID patients in the Riverhead hospital reached nearly 100 people.

“We need people to continue to be smart, to maintain social distance, wear face coverings and practice good hand hygiene,” Mitchell said. “We don’t want to go back to where we were.”

He said he remains concerned that businesses reopening and drawing shoppers, and people going back to work, combined with crowds of protesters gathering on local streets, will bring an uptick in coronavirus infections.

Protests in NYC and across Long Island in the past two weeks included two in Riverhead and May 31. Two more are scheduled today.

One, a protest on Route 58 near the traffic circle, prompted a press release from the Riverhead Town Supervisor and Riverhead Police Department to advise the community of the protest, which organizers said will last from noon to 8 p.m. It is unknown how large the protest will be or how long it will last, town officials said.

The second, a rally on the riverfront at 2 p.m. is billed as “a heart to heart” conversation with local law enforcement, “a moment to share from a mother’s point of view what it means to raise a black man in America.”

So far, at least, data released by the State Health Department has not shown increases in the rate of new infections and hospitalizations since protests and rallies began taking place in the week following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The CDC document released yesterday defines as “highest risk” for spreading COVID-19 large gatherings where it is difficult for people to stay at least six feet apart and where attendees travel from outside the local area.

Medium-sized and smaller gatherings still bring risks of spreading the disease, even when they are “adapted to allow individuals to remain spaced at least six feet apart” and people wear face coverings. The risk is higher where attendees come from outside the local community, according to the CDC.