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Long Island Covid-19 Cases Double to 200,000 in 2 Months

Blood sample tube positive with COVID-19
Blood sample tube positive with COVID-19 or novel coronavirus 2019 found in Wuhan, China
Getty Images

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases on Long Island has doubled to more than 200,000 in slightly more than two month’s time, New York State health data shows.

Nassau County has 96,112 diagnosed Covid-19 cases and Suffolk County has 106,061 for a total of 202,173 for the region as of Tuesday, according to the state Department of Health. The number of cases on LI had crossed the 100,000 mark on Nov. 1, nine months after the first case was confirmed in the region.

“In 31 days we saw the highest number of new cases since the beginning of this crisis and suffered 100 more deaths than we experienced in the prior six months combined,” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said. “With distribution of the vaccine underway, the goal line is in sight but we must remain vigilant in the weeks and months ahead.”

New York State recently tallied more than 1 million cases of the virus, which is also double what it had about two months ago. As of Wednesday, there were 1,057,676 cases in the Empire State, 21 million nationwide, and 86 million worldwide.

The infection rate on the Island was 9.6 percent as of Monday and the statewide rate is 7.9 percent, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office.

Also as of Tuesday, Covid-19 cases in which patients died rose to 10,965 in New York State, 360,693 nationwide, and 1.8 million worldwide. Those included 4,833 on LI: 2,445 in Nassau, and 2,388 in Suffolk.

The rise in cases comes as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had administered 5,306,797 first doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Wednesday morning and distributed 17,288,950 doses.

The tally of vaccine doses distributed and the number of people who received the first dose are for both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, vaccines as of 9 a.m. Wednesday, the agency said.

According to the tally posted on Jan. 5, the agency had administered 4,836,469 first doses of the vaccines and distributed 17,020,575 doses.

A total of 3,416,875 vaccine doses were distributed for use in long-term care facilities and 511,635 people in the facilities got their first dose, the agency said.

-With Reuters

For more coronavirus coverage, visit longislandpress.com/coronavirus

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