MARCH 2021 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 27
Nurse Sandra Lindsay receives the second dose of a Pfizer coronavirus disease vaccine, at Long Island Jewish Medical Center on January 4, 2021. REUTERS/
Shannon Stapleton/Pool/File Photo
A GRIM MILESTONE
THE YEAR COVID-19 CHANGED EVERYTHING
BY TIMOTHY BOLGER
March 5 marks a year since Nassau County officials confirmed the first patient on Long
Island to be diagnosed with Covid-19 — and the global pandemic upending daily life locally
days later.
Since then, more than 300,000 cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in Nassau
and Suffolk counties, with two-thirds of those identified since the second wave began in
November. About 6,000 Long Islanders succumbed to the virus since Suffolk confirmed
the region’s first fatality March 16, 2020. Despite health advances in treating patients and
curbing the spread of the pandemic since then, vaccine access remains an issue on Long
Island as New York State blamed federal supply bottlenecks for not keeping up with demand.
PRESS HEALTH
WHAT’S INSIDE continued on page 28
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COVID-19
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