JUNE 2020 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 13
DETECTIVES ARE KEY TO LI’S REOPENING
“Our people are very clear that we’re
not passing judgement,” Dr. Eisenstein
says. “We’re not the police, we’re
simply trying to prevent the spread
of disease.”
But he notes that sometimes, tracking
people down requires a little extra legwork.
For example, not everyone has a
current address listed on the driver’s
license, or the phone number may have
recently changed.
And although the number of cases made
containment impossible, prompting the
New York on Pause mitigation measures
intended to flatten the curve and lessen
how overwhelmed the healthcare
system got, disease detectives pressed
on. Contact tracers have continued
reaching out to each person diagnosed,
which was nearly 80,000 people on LI as
of press time.
Some question whether more should
have been done sooner. A recent Columbia
University study found that
if the shutdown and social distancing
mandates had been enacted a week earlier,
up to 36,000 lives could have been
saved nationwide. Cuomo has cautioned
against Monday morning quarterbacking
at halftime.
“We’re able to tell you how many cases
occurred and unfortunately how many
deaths occurred, but we’re never able
to quantify for you how many cases did
not happen because of the work that we
do,” Dr. Eisenstein told reporters during
a recent news conference.
WHAT’S NEXT
With the ramped-up contact tracing
program in place, the goal is now to
ensure there are enough disease detectives
to reach out to patients more
quickly and ensure those diagnosed
are isolating to avoid further spreading
the disease.
Those who don’t have space in their
own home to isolate from their families
are quarantined in local hotels.
Monitoring the COVID-19 hospitalization
and death rates are so-called regional
control rooms, which will alter
reopening plans if there’s a spike in
cases that again swamps the Island’s
nearly two dozen hospitals.
“We do not anticipate anything
happening in a negative nature with
respect to the metrics,” Suffolk County
Executive Steve Bellone, who is
on the control room panel, recently
told reporters during one of his daily
coronavirus news briefings. “I don’t
think with these phase one activities
we will see a significant uptick.”
His counterpart, Nassau County Executive
Laura Curran, has signaled
similar optimism as the county leaders
each have been eager to safely
reopen the economy.
It seems the one certainty is that the
response — what is known about the
virus, and the virus itself — is sure to
change.
“We are smart enough to know that we
don’t know it all,” Dr. Eisenstein say.
“So we’re gonna take the steps that we
think are best. And as we get new info,
we change the way that we respond.”
And if efforts to contain the pandemic
— including any potential second or
third waves — are successful, perhaps
Dr. Eisenstin will actually get to watch
the Super Bowl next February.
THIS MONTH
Contact tracers track down a patient’s contacts. (Getty Images
CORONAVIRUS BY THE NUMBERS
• 79,499 confirmed cases on Long Island.
• 40,140 confirmed cases in Nassau County.
• 39,359 confirmed cases in Suffolk County.
• 3,959 confirmed COVID-19 fatalities on Long Island.
• 2,114 confirmed COVID-19 fatalities in Nassau.
• 1,871 confirmed COVID-19 fatalities in Suffolk.
• 366,733 confirmed coronavirus cases in New York State.
• 23,722 confirmed COVID-19 fatalities in New York State.
• 1.7 million confirmed coronavirus cases in U.S.
• 101,617 confirmed COVID-19 fatalities in U.S.
• 5.8 confirmed coronavirus cases wolrdwide.
• 360,332 confirmed COVID-19 fatalities worldwide.
Data from New York State Department of Health and Johns Hopkins
University as of May 28.
/LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
