JANUARY 2022 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 41
COVID-19 ROUNDUP
LATEST PANDEMIC HEADLINES
CASES SPIKE ON LI AMID
HOLIDAY SURGE
Long Island shattered its record for
the number of patients diagnosed with
Covid-19 in a single day when the region
saw a 50% spike in cases just before
Christmas, offi cials said.
The number of cases on LI jumped from
4,606 – 2,468 in Nassau County and
2,138 in Suff olk County – on Dec. 22
to 6,950 on Dec. 23, when there were
3,682 and 3,268 cases, respectively,
New York State Department health
data shows. Cases then jumped another
18% on Dec. 24, when LI saw 8,216 new
infections, with 4,457 in Nassau and
3,759 in Suff olk, data shows.
U.S. Covid-19 infections are increasing,
with 205,509 new infections reported
on average each day, a Reuters tally
showed.
New York State broke its record for the
most cases reported in one day when
it saw a 34% jump with 38,835 patients
diagnosed Dec. 23. It broke that record
the next day when 44,431 cases were
reported. New cases slowed to 36,454
on Christmas Day, including 6,791 on
the Island.
-TB
SOME LI HOSPITALS
SUSPENDING VISITATIONS
AS COVID CASES SPIKE
Long Island hospitals are reevaluating
their visitation policies as Covid-19
cases surge in the region, and some
facilities have chosen to suspend
visitations.
Mount Sinai South Nassau announced
on Dec. 21 that it would not permit visitors
in its emergency units in Oceanside
and Long Beach or in the Oceanside
hospital’s infusion center. As of press
time, pediatric emergency patients
are allowed one healthy adult parent
or caregiver visitor. Visitors to the
hospital must show proof of vaccination
or a negative PCR test result within the
past 72 hours, and Covid-19 patients may
not have visitors.
Hospital offi cials called the measure “a
proactive response to the rise of Covid
cases in the community coming to the
hospital for emergency or inpatient
care and in order to maintain a safe
environment for our patients, their
visitors, and hospital employees.”
Each of Northwell Health’s Long Island
hospitals have reevaluated their visitation
policies. According to a Northwell
spokesperson, Huntington Hospital
and South Shore University Hospital
suspended visitations on Dec. 23, and
Glen Cove also on Thursday but with
an exception for palliative care. Long
Island Jewish Medical and North Shore
University Hospital stopped permitting
visitors beginning Sunday, Dec. 26.
-BB
HOCHUL SLAMS
BLAKEMAN FOR REFUSING
TO ENFORCE MASK
MANDATE
New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul said
she won’t play political games with local
politicians across New York State who
have refused to follow her new vaccineor
mask mandate for all indoor public
spaces as Covid-19 infections and hospitalizations
continue to rise.
Nassau County Executive-elect Bruce
Blakeman, a Republican, said he will
not enforce the mandate, adding that
the area is “not in crisis and should not
be painted with the same broad brush
as the rest of the state.”
“We have to get to a point of rational
discussion about this and it’s not about
scoring political points or getting headlines
to call out the governor on an issue.
That doesn’t aff ect a single thing I do,”
Hochul told reporters during a press
briefi ng on Tuesday, Dec. 14.
The mandate went into eff ect on Dec. 13
and requires all New Yorkers to either
show proof of vaccination or wear a
mask in indoor public settings. Hochul
has said it will be up to local governments
to enforce it, some of whom have
said they will refuse to do so.
-Kevin Duggan, via amNewYork Metro
U.S. SUPREME COURT
REJECTS RELIGIOUS
CHALLENGE TO NY
VAX MANDATE
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday
rejected challenges brought by Christian
doctors and nurses and a group
that promotes vaccine skepticism to
New York‘s refusal to allow religious
exemptions to the state’s mandate that
healthcare workers be vaccinated
against Covid-19.
Acting in two cases, the justices denied
emergency requests for an injunction
requiring the state to allow religious
exemptions while litigation over the
mandate’s legality continues in lower
courts. Conservative Justices Clarence
Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch
said they would have granted the
injunction.
The Supreme Court previously rejected
other challenges to vaccine mandates
including one focusing upon Maine’s
lack of a religious exemption for healthcare
workers.
The New York challengers said the mandate,
which allows a narrow medical
exemption but no religious one, violates
the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment
prohibition on religious discrimination by
the government, or a federal civil rights
law requiring employers to reasonably
accommodate employees’ religious beliefs.
A lower court rejected their bid for an
injunction.
-Reuters
COMMENT PERIOD ON
BIDEN’S WORKPLACE
VACCINE RULE
EXTENDED 45 DAYS
The Biden administration on Tuesday
extended the comment period on its
sweeping workplace Covid-19 vaccine
rule by 45 days as it seeks feedback from
various stakeholders including private
employers on whether a recently issued
emergency temporary standard should
become a permanent rule.
The emergency rule was issued by the
Labor Department’s Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OSHA)
on Nov. 5. The deadline for comments,
initially set for Dec. 6, has now been
pushed back to Jan. 19.
The OSHA rule, covering tens of millions
of workers, requires that businesses
with at least 100 employees see that
their workers are vaccinated or tested
weekly and comply by Jan. 4.
-Reuters
PRESS HEALTH
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