by Ken Giustino
Aside from the Vaccine rollout which is the best news we’ve had since the Pandemic started, there was some testing reporting confusion that makes things look worse than it actually is. The way the Covid Positive Cases numbers have been posted on the Suffolk County website has been unintentionally deceiving or at least confusing. I questioned why the Positive Cases numbers haven’t decreased but continued to increase every few days. I called the NYS 311 hotline and questioned it. Their response was the number represented on the map was “the current number of positive cases”. It didn’t seem feasible that the number doesn’t ever decrease so with further investigation, I found additional day-by-day infection rate information that shows a better picture of where we stand on the fight on COVID! The map below has been the source of town-by-town Positive Cases for most of the news media.
It turns out the numbers on the map above are describing the accumulated COVID cases over the last year and not the number of active of COVID-19 cases reported the day it’s posted.
The graph below shows the number of new cases by the day which shows a much better view of where we are in the fight against COVID-19. There were 11 new cases in Montauk since the beginning of March. There were 14 cases reported in February and 46 COVID-19 cases in January. So, Montauk’s infection rate is 25% less than we were from the beginning of 2021!
Typically, if you get COVID you would be contagious for 10 days after symptoms first appeared. Currently, there is only 4 Montauk residents infected with COVID-19 in the past 10 days that can be contagious. This information has been taken from the NYS Department of Health. It does show we’re far better than what was previously reported.
As you can see during the Summer months, we did much better, possibly because we were able to spend more time outside and our diligent mask wearing skills were in place, it was also the low flu season. I expect to see the results of the Vaccine to also help get us to the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel.
Meanwhile stay diligent and protect yourself and maybe we can return to a resemblance of our old normal. We will continue monitoring the information and sending out weekly newsletters with updates on our local concerns. To get on the newsletter mailing list go to montauksun.com and click on “Join our Mailing List”
Here are a few things taken from NYS Department of Health website you may find interesting:
How long do I have to self-isolate after being infected with COVID-19?
You can be around others after:
• 10 days since symptoms first appeared and
• 24 hours with no fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and
• Other symptoms of COVID-19 are improving*
*Loss of taste and smell may persist for weeks or months after recovery and need not delay the end of isolation
Are you immune to COVID-19 after recovering from it?
There is no firm evidence that the antibodies that develop in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection are protective. If these antibodies are protective, it’s not known what antibody levels are needed to protect against reinfection. Updated Mar 4, 2021
Do antibiotics work against coronavirus disease?
Antibiotics do not prevent or treat COVID-19, because COVID-19 is caused by a virus, not bacteria. Some patients with COVID-19 may also develop a bacterial infection, such as pneumonia. In that case, a health care professional may treat the bacterial infection with an antibiotic. Updated Mar 1, 2021
What is the recovery time for the coronavirus disease?
They found that for people with mild disease, recovery time is about two weeks, while people with severe or critical disease recover within three to six weeks.
