NEWSPAPER OF RECORD SINCE 1885
VOL. CXXXIV NO. 39
THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2020
COPING
Closures Extended Till End of April
Focus on Something Higher Make up, call mom, talk with someone daily BY JENNIFER LANDES As a licensed clinical social worker and therapist with decades in the field, Mary Bromley thought she had seen everything—from the early AIDS crisis at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan to the emotional toll of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and deaths. “This is different. This is worse,” she said last week by phone in East Hampton, where her office has been closed by the pandemic. “We can’t touch one another. We can’t visit each other. Hospitals aren’t allowing family members to visit patients. This is going to be a long haul.” At St. Vincent’s, “I was in the special victims unit treating rape victims who had home invasions and were being held hostage for days,” she said. “We had the most serious cases in the city come to us.” Even with AIDS, after about the first six months, she recalled that people stopped wearing gloves and could touch patients. “People could gather around someone who was dying and help them. Now, if you go to the hospital, you can’t go in with anyone. We’re facing tremendous isolation and depression in our community.” In every other crisis, she noted, peo-
Biggest one-day jump in deaths came Tuesday
First responders and grateful residents from across the South Fork drove around Stony Brook Southampton Hospital on Friday honking, cheering, and sounding sirens to thank doctors, nurses, and other hospital employees. Story on A5. Doug Kuntz
Continued on A7
Telehealth Powers Up Virus forces doctors, patients to embrace future today BY CHRISTINE SAMPSON Dr. George Dempsey of East Hampton Family Medicine has two offices in East Hampton now, one where patients are seen in person, and one dedicated to “telehealth” visits, where patients are seen using any kind of face-to-face video conferencing system available to them. “Telehealth” and “telemedicine” are relatively new buzzwords -- not a system born in the last few weeks, but one that the health care industry has developed widely in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. In a recent interview, Dr. Dempsey said his team was seeing about 45 to 50 patients per day by telehealth, and about 10 patients per day in person. Anyone who has respiratory symptoms or is suspected to have Covid-19 waits in his or her car and is seen there instead of in the office, Dr. Dempsey said. “We really need upgrades to get better performance,” he said. “But we’re working. We’re keeping up with patients and taking care of them. They’re relieved, but it’s also pretty cool to talk to them while they’re at home. It’s great for us, too. I’m looking into advancing this.” Dr. Erin McGintee, an allergist and immunologist who practices with ENT and Allergy Associates in Southampton, called the transition to telehealth “a real learning curve.” “For a low-risk patient, sometimes
that’s the safer choice,” she said. “As physicians, we would always rather be in the room with our patients, one on one. In the situation we’re in now, we have to take every patient on a case-bycase basis. What is safest for us, safest for the patient? It doesn’t mean we are withholding care.” Dr. McGintee said she was seeing about 90 percent of her patients remotely last month. “The patients who are physically coming into the office are primarily coming in for injectable biologic therapy for severe asthma, or to receive allergy shots for life-threatening bee venom allergies. Those patients are prescreened by me personally before they come in, and there is minimal person to person contact. . . . Fortunately, we have been able to help most of our patients using telemedicine, which is great, given the importance of social distancing right now.” Dr. Steven B. Sobey, a urologist with the Meeting House Lane Medical Practice, began seeing patients virtually this week. The system integrates with his electronic records system, so it’s really easy to include notes in patients’ records, he said. So far, he has only had between five and 10 telehealth visits, and is still seeing a few people in the office as well. “Definitely in urology, many patients still require in-person visits. That won’t Continued on A4
ECONOMY
Landscapers Idled Too Planting season? Forget it. Only maintenance allowed BY CHRISTOPHER WALSH The near-total shutdown in commercial activity on the South Fork amid the coronavirus pandemic is now impacting an industry that in ordinary times would be in its busiest period of the year: landscaping. After new guidance was issued by New York State last Thursday, the East Hampton Town Police Department posted an update about landscaping on its Facebook page on Friday: “only ‘maintenance’ service is now deemed essential,” per a revision to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s New York State on PAUSE executive order, the department wrote. “The Governor’s office issued the change last night and has determined [that] other than ‘property maintenance,’ and certain licensed spraying, all new landscape projects, including new planting, is non-essential, and must cease immediately.” Food crop agriculture remains essential, according to the Police Department’s message. The post includes the web page at which residents observing prohibited activity can file a complaint with the state’s Covid-19 enforcement task force. New York’s Empire State Development agency is advising businesses that landscaping “has been designated as es-
sential solely as it relates to maintenance and pest control . . . not cosmetic landscaping.” The agency, an official said, also noted that “an ‘essential’ industry does not mean business as usual -- business can only be conducted if social distancing and other public health protocols are followed and all must be doing everything they can to help stop the spread” of the coronavirus. “We’re close to closed down,” Charlie Whitmore, of Charlie & Sons Landscapes in Amagansett, said on Monday. Second-home owners typically insist that landscaping projects be completed by Memorial Day, certainly by Independence Day. Mr. Whitmore said a staff that would normally number around 60 in the spring is closer to 6. Employees have been told to stay home as the state’s Covid-19 infections are anticipated to peak in the coming days or weeks. “We’re doing some bare-bones things to keep people happy, but mostly doing it ourselves,” he said of his family-owned and operated business. “That’s it.” Charlie & Sons’ website states that its garden center and offices are closed to the public per the governor’s order, but the company is open, and orders and inContinued on A10
Hope In Times of Uncertainty Clergy offer virtual Seders, Zoom Holy Week services By Taylor K. Vecsey As Christians observe Holy Week and Jews gather for Passover Seders, the Covid-19 pandemic has closed the doors of houses of worship, and religious leaders have been forced to come up with new ways to reach their congregants at a time when spiritual support is perhaps needed the most. From his own dinner table, Rabbi Joshua Franklin of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons in East Hampton Village will lead one of the virtual Seders for Passover, the major Jewish spring festival commemorating the liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, which began last night. Online Haggadahs, which tell the story of the Exodus, will be available. “I think the interesting thing is Haggadah means ‘the telling,’ “ he said Tuesday. “The telling of the story actually requires something that is a little bit different. Telling requires a little bit of creativity. It requires ingenuity. It requires that you be interesting. Storytelling is a different art form than reading.” The Haggadah is the most reprinted Jewish text in existence. Each of the thousands of different editions has its own creative twist, Rabbi Franklin said. “Wherever you might be, your responsibility is to tell the story in whatever format will reach the masses and will reach the crowd there. This year, putting the Haggadah online and making a virtual Seder might seem like something that is novel, but at the same time, the Haggadah itself is meant to be adaptable to every single audience and wherever you might be. So, it’s a good holiday to actually have virtually.” Leaders of many of the churches and synagogues on the East End have been either live-streaming or pre-recording services so that parishioners can listen in and feel the message of God. The Rev. Ryan Creamer at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton has been recording Masses for the past three Sundays, including Palm Sunday, in the sanctuary and has posted them on the church’s website. The Good Friday liturgy and Easter Sunday Mass will be no different. Continued on A4
BY CARISSA KATZ As New York State approaches what could be the apex of the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo this week extended his New York State on PAUSE executive order by two weeks, meaning that schools and nonessential businesses must remain closed at least through April 29. A slight leveling off of new Covid-19 cases over the weekend suggested that the state could be reaching a plateau in infections, but even if that proves to be true, “we are plateauing at a very high level,” the governor said in his midday Monday briefing. “It doesn’t really matter if we’ve hit the plateau or not,” the governor said. “Public health still demands we stay on pause.” Nearly 140,000 had tested positive as of Tuesday, when the state saw its biggest single-day jump in deaths from the virus. Between Monday and Tuesday morning, 731 had died across the state, bringing New York’s death toll to 5,489, but the number of new hospitalizations was increasing at a slower rate than it had been. Suffolk County was reporting 15,872 Covid-19 cases as of Tuesday afternoon, but by yesterday morning the number had jumped to 16,901, with 74 of them
in East Hampton Town, 228 in Southampton, 169 in Riverhead, 233 in Southold, and 3 on Shelter Island. As of Tuesday, 263 people in Suffolk had died from the virus. “One of the reasons the rate of infection is going down is because social distancing is working,” the governor said Monday. Nevertheless, he said, there has “been a laxness on social distancing, especially over this past weekend, that is just wholly unacceptable.” To encourage greater compliance with rules requiring that people maintain a six-foot distance from each other in public, the governor said he is increasing fines for violating his order from $500 to $1,000. “Now is not the time to be lax,” the governor said, adding, “I want our local governments to enforce the social distancing rules. I want them to be . . . more aggressive on enforcement.” East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo said this week that his officers have been proactive in patrolling beaches and parks to ensure that people are following the governor’s guidelines, and he has worked with code enforcement and the Building Department to address construction sites. Continued on A9
Please, Can’t We Go To School? Challenge for educators: teaching social-emotional learning through a screen BY CHRISTINE SAMPSON Valeria Guevara is in the 11th grade at East Hampton High School, Emma Kapon is in the fifth grade at the Bridgehampton School, Kaila Zeh-Gatti is in the seventh grade at the Montauk School, and Olive Guinan is a kindergartner at the John M. Marshall Elementary School. In age and as students, they are very different, but they have one thing in common: They all miss attending classes in person. Schools in New York State have been closed since March 16 because of Covid19 and will remain closed through at least April 29. Meanwhile, students statewide are getting crash courses in distance learning. Teachers and friends alike are now faces and voices on computers, tablets, and phones. Lessons and activities have migrated to websites and videos. Each school’s approach to teaching varies, sometimes dramatically. “Having to take online high school courses has been one of the strangest methods of learning that I’ve experienced,” said Valeria, whose classes include four Advanced Placement courses, pre-calculus, and journalism. “What I miss the most about school is face-toface interactions with my teachers and other students. I also miss the traditional school environment: sitting at a desk and having to raise my hand whenever I had something to say.” Emma agreed. “I like actual school better. Online school isn’t as interactive as regular school is. You can’t really ask teachers questions -- you have to wait a good amount of time for them to com-
Hugo Kapon, a Bridgehampton School ninth grader, is adjusting to online learning. James Kapon ment, unless you’re on a video call.” Many teachers are helping their own children with lessons even as they lead classes online. Olive, who is in the dual language kindergarten class at John Marshall, has “appropriate, fun, and engaging” lessons that are also “manageable and flexible enough for a working parent,” said her mother, Beth Doyle, who happens to be the school principal. “I appreciate that very much.”
“We all miss being in school!” Ms. Doyle continued. “The teachers are so dedicated to their students; their hearts are breaking that they cannot be with them. The feedback has been very positive, but this way of teaching can never replace the connection that is needed between students and teachers, and students and their peers. Our mission is Continued on A6
POSTAL SERVICE
Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, Nor . . . Plastic tarps, Plexiglass protect workers as everday errand turns harrowing BY CHRISTINE SAMPSON A woman wearing a Jamaican flag around her face for protection. A post office lobby line at least eight people deep, each six feet apart, waiting for their turn at the counter. Folks dashing in and out as if the floor were hot lava, checking their postal boxes as quickly as they could. And people touching the doorknobs over and over and over with their bare hands because the doors weren’t propped open. This was the scene at the East Hampton Post Office shortly after 2 p.m. on Monday. But perhaps the most striking part -- and perhaps the most reassuring -- were the big sheets of clear plastic draped in front of the service counter, forming a physical barrier between the clerks and the customers -- a reminder of the new realities of the Covid-19 pandemic that has turned public spaces into dangerous places. There were similar plastic tarpaulins put up this week at the Amagansett Post Office, and tall pieces of hard plexiglass
nailed up at the counter at the Sag Harbor Post Office. The Sagaponack Post Office is handing out mail curbside. The East Hampton Post Office has even changed its weekday hours, instituting a one-hour closure between 1 and 2 p.m. Customer complaints abound, particularly, on Monday in East Hampton, about the doorknobs. When queried about the issues, local postmasters said they were not permitted to give interviews. But a regional United States Postal Service spokesman responded by email to questions this week, saying the official guidance to individual post offices is to reinforce “workplace behaviors [that] ensure that contact amongst our employees and with our customers reflects the best guidance regarding healthy interactions, social distancing, and risk minimization.” “We have implemented measures at retail facilities and mail processing facilities to ensure appropriate social distancing, including through signage, floor tape, and ‘cough/sneeze’ barriers,” said Xavier C. Hernandez, who handles media inquiries on Long Island and in
Manhattan and the Bronx. “We have changed delivery procedures to eliminate the requirement that customers sign our mobile delivery devices for delivery. For increased safety, employees will politely ask the customer to step back a safe distance or close the screen door/door so that they may leave the item in the mail receptacle or appropriate location by the customer door.” Nationally, the U.S. Postal Service has been busy “ensuring millions of masks, gloves, and cleaning and sanitizing products are available and distributed to more than 30,000 locations every day,” Mr. Hernandez said. Cleaning is thorough and in line with guidelines from the federal Centers for Disease Control. Employees have benefited from additional paid sick leave “to give [them] the ability to stay home whenever they feel sick, must provide dependent care, or any other qualifying factor under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act.” The C.D.C., World Health Organization, and U.S. surgeon general have all Continued on A5