This story was reported by Robert Brodsky Bart Jones David Olson David Reich-Hale and Jean-Paul SalamancaIt was written by Jones.
On Friday, more temporary vaccination sites on Long Island – to reach East End seniors and members of the region’s growing Indian community, among others – emerged as part of increased pressure from local and state governments to improve access to the COVID . 19 shots.
In Melville, 237 people were vaccinated at the BAPS Hindu Temple. Medical personnel at Stony Brook University Hospital administered the shots.
Snehal Shah of Nesconset was one of the recipients.
“I feel protected,” he said after receiving the first two-shot vaccine. “I feel like I’m not going to be one of those spreading the germs, the disease all around, so I feel I’m doing my civic duty.”
He said he is especially relieved that his 84-year-old mother lives with him.
Efforts continued as Long Island marked a year since the first case of the coronavirus was identified in the region, the beginning of a health crisis that had claimed 6,057 lives in Nassau and Suffolk combined, according to state figures updated Friday.
Nassau County Executive Laura Curran mourned that loss, saying the county is working to return to normal.
“On this one-year anniversary of the first confirmed COVID-19 case in Nassau County, we remember the 2,935 precious lives lost and look to the future with renewed hope,” Curran said in a statement.
She said Nassau is “still leading the way” among major counties in the states “to get residents vaccinated, which is a very positive signal for our recovery.”
So far, she said more than 20% of residents have received at least one injection of the COVID-19 vaccine, which is delivered in two doses in the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna formulations and as one dose with the more recent Johnson & Johnson Injection.
“While we’ve seen a big drop in the number of cases and hospitalizations since our winter peak, we’re not out of the woods yet,” added Curran.
At the Melville site, Girish Patel, a spokesman for the temple, the largest Hindu place of worship on Long Island, said it was the first of 106 BAPS temples in the United States to run a vaccination clinic.
He said many members of the Long Island Hindu community were afraid to take the photo due to health issues, or needing translators to fill out forms or register on websites. BAPS volunteers worked with them, among other things, to convince them that the vaccine was right for them and others.
“Some of them are really scared of getting the vaccine,” said Patel. “Now they are so happy they got the vaccine.”
Patel said the temple now has a waiting list of 150 more people who want to get vaccinated, and hopes the state will allow a second clinic.
Recordings for seniors and teachers
In Riverhead, the local senior center began vaccinating seniors 65 and older on Friday morning, supervisor Yvette Aguiar said.
Vaccinations take place for four days and 500 seniors had registered. About 250 local seniors are expected to be vaccinated every day and a total of 1,000 seniors will receive the Moderna vaccine by the end of Tuesday, Aguiar said.
“Riverhead has one of the largest senior populations, and after calling for vaccines to be brought to the senior center, the state has heard our call and I thank the state for hearing our voices,” said Aguiar.
Meanwhile, Nassau County and Mount Sinai South Nassau launched a pilot program to vaccinate teachers and school staff from the Island Park, Long Beach, Oceanside and Rockville Center school districts.
The Teacher’s Vaccination Pilot Program was scheduled to vaccinate 300 teachers at the hospital’s vaccination center at Rockville Center on Friday.
“We know it is of the utmost importance to return fully personalized education to students and teachers, and this pilot program is essential to help normalize our schools,” said Dr. Adhi Sharma, Chief Medical Officer at Mount Sinai South Nassau.
Kevin Kennedy, a social studies teacher at South Side High School in Rockville Center, said he’d spent weeks unsuccessfully trying to get a vaccination appointment at state-run sites.
“I’m relieved and quite happy,” Kennedy said Friday. “It’s been a while.”
Positivity levels when testing for COVID-19 continued to level off. The seven-day statewide average was 3.16%, with a level of 4.21% on Long Island.
The number of new confirmed test results Thursday was 789 in Nassau County, 750 in Suffolk County and 4,856 in New York City.
Statewide, a total of 94 people died from coronavirus-related causes on Thursday.
LI wife sues to visit husband in nursing home
A lawsuit filed in federal court on Thursday calls for the Long Island State Veterans Home in Stony Brook to be ordered to allow a woman to visit her 60-year-old husband.
Mary Mauro wants to visit her husband, Mario Mauro, who has been in the nursing home since January 9, 2020, the indictment, filed by Holtsville’s attorney Joseph Mauro, says. He did not answer calls for comment. It is unclear what his relationship is with Mary and Mario Mauro.
Members of Mario Mauro’s immediate family helped with his nutrition before the March visit was banned, and since then his weight has dropped from 142 to 110 pounds, the suit says.
The visit ban “prevented Mrs. Mauro from helping feed her husband and has resulted in Mr. Mauro losing more than 30 pounds, which is now threatening his life,” the suit says.
The state has strict rules on nursing home visits, but the suit says a Feb. 22 state health service guideline allowing “compassionate care visits” for some residents who have lost weight and may need support from loved ones covers Mauros’s situation.
“There is simply no risk of plaintiff Mary Mauro entering the facility to help care for her husband” because both have been vaccinated against COVID-19, Mary Mauro would wear a mask and would not interact with anyone else in the facility, and her man never leaves his room, suggests the suit.
The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages in addition to an injunction preventing the house from preventing her from visiting.
Stony Brook Medicine said it does not comment on pending litigation. Cuomo adviser Richard Azzopardi said the governor’s office does not comment on disputes.
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