More than 8,500 people on the North Shore had tested positive for the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic in mid-March as of Sunday, according to the most up-to-date figures from the Nassau County Department of Health.
Of that total, more than 700 people had tested positive for the coronavirus since the previous Sunday. The Great Neck peninsula’s seven-day positivity rate of 4.33 percent trailed only Massapequa Park’s 6.39 percent rate in the county.
Throughout the peninsula, nearly 1,900 people had tested positive for the virus since the beginning of the pandemic, according to county figures as of Sunday. This figure is an increase of 152 total cases from last week’s 1,745 cases.
The peninsula was deemed a “yellow zone” for the coronavirus by Gov. Andrew Cuomo two weeks ago, which means new restrictions have been placed on schools, indoor and outdoor dining, and gatherings.
According to Cuomo, yellow zone restrictions allow for nonresidential indoor or outdoor gatherings of up to 25 people and residential gatherings of up to 10 people. Places of worship are capped at half capacity and restaurants are required to limit tables to no more than four people. Schools are permitted to remain open but are required to test 20 percent of in-school students and staff members.
The Port Washington area’s 790 cases account for almost 10 percent of the North Shore’s positive tests.
The New Hyde Park area accounted for 1,749 of the North Shore’s cases, with North New Hyde Park having the third-most confirmed positives, 637, out of any analyzed area. The villages of Floral Park, with 524 cases, and New Hyde Park, with 446 cases, were also among the top seven villages or unincorporated town areas in terms of positive tests, according to Health Department statistics.
Municipalities and unincorporated areas that stretch into more than one North Shore area such as Flower Hill, Herricks, Albertson, Garden City Park, Searingtown and North Hills were counted separately and accounted for 1,035 cases, according to county statistics.
The village of Mineola saw the highest increase of cases over the one-week period with more than 100 new cases. Mineola’s 745 cases and Garden City’s 651 cases accounted for 1,396 of the 1,716 cases in the area that also takes in the Willistons.
Manhasset, which has consistently remained comparatively low since the beginning of the pandemic, had 489 cases, with around half coming from town-governed areas. It is the only analyzed area with fewer than 500 cases.
The Village of Roslyn’s 178 cases may not seem high compared with other North Shore areas, but the cases per 1,000 residents, 602.41, is one of the highest rates in Nassau County, according to Health Department figures.
A total of 64,359 Nassau County residents had tested positive for the virus as of Sunday, and 2,266 had died since the pandemic began in mid-March. More than 320 Nassau residents remained hospitalized due to the virus, with 44 in intensive care units and 28 on ventilators, according to county figures.
Nassau County Executive Laura Curran discussed the ongoing efforts that she and the county have undertaken to limit the positivity rate, which stood at 5.8 percent on Tuesday, the highest one-day number the county had seen in months, according to Curran.
“My focus now is working on our economic recovery. We’re going to be rolling out some infrastructure announcements next week, getting people back to work, getting back to normal, advocating for our businesses who are going above and beyond and have spent thousands of dollars to get things right,” Curran said on Friday during a Vision Long Island Conference interview.
Despite the county’s efforts and partnerships to help combat the ripple effects from the pandemic, Curran said that the county could not afford another shutdown if residents do not comply with health guidelines.
“I’m wondering if we’ll have that voluntary compliance because we’ve proven that these places can operate safely,” Curran said. “We’re not seeing outbreaks in the gyms, we’re not seeing outbreaks in the schools. The contact tracing [can] bring us back to small gatherings, social gatherings, things happening in the home.”
Throughout New York, more than 728,000 people had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Wednesday, according to state figures. Of that total, more than 34,700 people had died. In New York City, 343,000 people had contracted the virus, and 24,416 had died.
