COVID-19 hospitalizations in Suffolk are on track to more than double this month compared to last month, while COVID fatalities Dec. 1 through Dec. 17 were already nearly triple the number of fatalities for the entire month of November.
There have been 97 COVID-19 fatalities this month through Dec. 17, compared with 35 in the entire month of November. There have been 849 new hospital admissions in December so far, compared to 567 new admissions for the entire month of November.
Suffolk’s test positivity rate has been over 5% on a seven-day rolling average since the week after Thanksgiving. It’s been over 6% since Dec. 7 and it continues to climb. On Thursday, the most recent published data available as of Saturday morning, Suffolk’s seven-day average positivity rate was 6.7%.
Suffolk’s single-day positivity rate Thursday was 7.2%, the second time in three days it was over 7%. (It shot up to 8.2% Tuesday.)
The “positivity rate” is the percentage of tests that returned positive results. Over the past month, an average of more than 15,500 tests are being reported in Suffolk County every day.
New cases have been rising steadily in Suffolk, with more than 1,000 per day, on average, this month. In contrast the average number of new cases per day in the month of November was 404. There were 12,143 new confirmed cases in Suffolk in November and 18,366 new cases Dec. 1-17. Overall, Suffolk has had more than 80,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases since March.
The data bear out the warnings officials issued about Thanksgiving holiday gatherings potentially leading to a surge in coronavirus infections, hospitalizations and deaths. As the winter holiday season continues, they continue to sound alarms about the public health impacts of holiday gatherings — even small parties and dinners in private residences.
See more coronavirus coverage, data and updates
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone this week said the recent positivity rates have “reached a troubling new level” and make it “clear that we are moving in the wrong direction.” He said with new cases and hospitalizations continue to “rise at alarming rates.”
“We have all worked incredibly hard over the last nine months, and because of the efforts of our residents countless lives have been saved,” Bellone said.
“With the vaccine here, now is not the time to take our eye off the ball,” he warned, urging residents to be vigilant and do all they can to ”keep our communities safe, our businesses and schools open, and our hospitals with enough capacity to continue their lifesaving work.”
Locally, there were 257 new confirmed cases in Riverhead Town in the first 17 days of December, compared to 272 for the entire month of November. The state health department does not publish test data or positivity rates for individual towns.
Similar spikes are being reported across New York State.
“New metrics” announced by the governor last week call for new social and business restrictions if infection rates continue to rise and hospital capacity shrinks to less than 15% in the region. So far, Long Island hospital capacity has not approached that mark. Most recently Long Island’s hospital capacity was reported to be 24% on Thursday.
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