Steve Bellone

County Executive Steve Bellone got his first taste of Snowflake Ice Cream today. The county exec toured Suffolk downtowns on the first day of Phase Two and stopped at the Riverhead ice cream shop for a chocolate soft-serve with chocolate sprinkles.

Suffolk County's COVID-19 map, which has been reporting case numbers out of sync with the state's data, will be taken offline for a short time, County Executive Steve Bellone announced yesterday.

The jump in reported deaths from the coronavirus in Suffolk late yesterday was due to previously unreported “presumed” COVID-19 deaths, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said this afternoon.

Suffolk County will provide law enforcement officers access to antibody testing starting next week, County Executive Steve Bellone announced today.

With key metrics of the coronavirus outbreak in Suffolk trending downward, county officials and businesses are developing plans to reopen the economy, but 'It's going to be a different kind of summer,' the county executive said.

New cases, new hospitalizations and the death toll from coronavirus infections continue to grow in Suffolk, County Executive Steve Bellone said today. He urged residents to "stay the course" with social distancing measures ro continue to suppress the pandemic outbreak.

Local government and health officials are examining the latest COVID-19 data, hoping to see trends that show Suffolk County has reached the apex of the coronavirus outbreak.

But the data are not so clear.

Suffolk County is launching free COVID-19 testing in “hot spot” communities where infections have spiked. The COVID hot spots are communities with large Latino populations and many immigrants.

The death toll reported by the county executive today set a grim record. The number of deaths reported daily has been increasing from week to week. The previous one-day high — 16 deaths — was reported on April 1.

Riverhead is one of four towns in Suffolk — all on the East End — where the confirmed cases remain fewer than 100.