COVID cases among Riverhead residents rise by nearly 14% in November so far

Confirmed positive COVID cases in Riverhead Town residents have risen nearly 14% since the beginning of the month — compared to an 8% case increase in the county as a whole during that period.

There were 1,010 confirmed cases in Riverhead residents as of Nov. 14, according to health department data reported yesterday, an increase of 122 cases since Oct. 31 — 13.8%.

The health department does not provide a town-level breakdown of the number of test results reported, so the test positivity rate for Riverhead residents cannot be calculated.

Overall, infections among residents of the five East End towns have been far fewer than infections among residents of the five western towns — just 3,489 cases versus 47,272 total cases in residents of Islip, Brookhaven, Babylon, Huntington and Smithtown.

The five western towns are much more populous than their East End counterparts. The rate of cases per thousand in the 10 towns ranges from a low of five per thousand people in Shelter Island to a high of 46 per thousand in Islip, according to county health department data. Riverhead’s rate is 30 cases per thousand.

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The cases-per-thousand number varies widely among hamlets within each town. For example, in Riverhead Town, where the case-per-thousand number is 30 overall, the Riverhead hamlet has 45 cases per thousand. In the Town of Southampton, with 27 cases per thousand residents, the hamlet of Flanders had 50 cases per thousand. In Islip, with 46 cases per thousand, Brentwood’s case-per-thousand number was 79.

Numbers continue upward trend across county, state

Suffolk County yesterday reported a 2.9% test positivity rate on Nov. 14 — 366 new confirmed cases out of 12,561 test results.

New York’s test positivity rate was 2.74% Saturday. There were 133,202 test results reported Saturday, 3,649 of them were positive.

There were 266 new COVID hospital admissions reported in New York State, bringing the total hospitalized to 1,845 people. Of those, 378 were in ICU and 158 of those patients were on ventilators.

There were 13 new hospital admissions in Suffolk, according to data released by the county. Eleven COVID patients were discharged from hospitals. A total of 6,172 Suffolk residents have been discharged from hospitals since March 22.

There were 30 deaths reported yesterday in New York State, bringing the state’s pandemic death toll to 26,133 people. Suffolk County reported three COVID-19 fatalities yesterday. Overall, 2,026 were Suffolk residents have died of the disease since the pandemic struck the region this spring.

Riverhead state of emergency extended

Riverhead Supervisor Yvette Aguiar on Friday extended the town’s state of emergency declaration. The terms of the declaration remain largely unchanged.

All meetings are canceled through Dec. 3, except the town board & CDA meeting of Nov. 17, the town board work session of Nov. 19, the planning board meeting of Nov. 19 and a handful of committee and advisory board meetings (Anti-Bias Task Force, Riverhead BID Management Association, business advisory, open space, architectural review, code revision and landmarks preservation). Most will take place via Zoom. The in-person meetings are closed to the public.

The town board and planning board meetings, as well as the town board work session, are live-streamed on the town’s website and broadcast on the Optimum public access channel 22.

Masks and social distancing are required at all town facilities.

National summary

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday reported 1,252 COVID-19 deaths in the United Sates, bringing the national death toll to 244,810 since Jan. 21.

According to the CDC, 8,263 Americans died in the seven-day period ending Nov. 14. There were 14,832 fatalities from Nov. 1 to Nov. 14.