Almost 18,000 people on the North Shore have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began in mid-March, according to statistics provided by the Nassau County Department of Health on Wednesday.
As coronavirus vaccinations continue to be rolled out throughout the county, the North Shore saw one of the lowest one-week increases with less than 800 new cases throughout the region in the past week, according to statistics.
The area that incorporates the Willistons and Mineola had 3,999 cases as of Wednesday, the most of all analyzed areas.
Despite the overall decrease in new cases, the Village of Mineola saw the highest increase of cases over the one-week period with nearly 90 new cases. Mineola’s 1,703 cases and Garden City’s 1,523 cases accounted for more than 3,200 of the 3,999 total cases in the area.
The New Hyde Park area accounted for 3,564 of the North Shore’s cases, with North New Hyde Park having the third most confirmed positives, 1,294, out of any analyzed area. The villages of Floral Park, with 1,140 cases, and New Hyde Park, with 836 cases, were also among the top 10 villages or unincorporated town areas in terms of positive tests and were for the entire month of December, according to Health Department statistics.
The Great Neck peninsula saw an increase of nearly 150 new cases over the past week. The villages of Great Neck, Kings Point and Great Neck Plaza accounted for more than 2,300 total cases. Kings Point hit 600 total cases as of Wednesday. The peninsula accounted for 3,351 cases, according to Health Department figures.
The Port Washington area, which surpassed 2,000 total cases since mid-March this week, saw an increase of nearly 100 cases over one week, according to the figures. The town-governed area of Port Washington had 1,042 total cases as of Wednesday, leading the peninsula, and Manorhaven had 594 cases.
Municipalities and unincorporated areas that stretch into more than one North Shore area such as Flower Hill, Herricks, Albertson, Garden City Park, Searingtown and North Hills were counted separately and accounted for 2,345 cases, according to county statistics.
Flower Hill Mayor Brian Herrington said during a Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday he was amazed at how many new cases turned up in the village during the holiday season and encouraged everyone to remain vigilant and continue to demonstrate proper health and safety precautions.
“I’m amazed at how many new cases we had over the last three months,” Herrington said. “I mean, we basically matched the entire rest of the year last year, and in that short period. So please, everybody, be careful, wear masks, socially distance.”
The Village of Roslyn’s 270 cases appeared comparatively low, but the cases per 1,000 residents, 93.62, is one of the four highest rates in Nassau County, according to Health Department figures. Despite this, the village has seen one of the lowest three-month increases of any analyzed municipality, with fewer than 150 new confirmed cases since Nov. 1, according to county statistics. The village had just three new cases over the past week. Roslyn Heights had 544 total cases as of Wednesday, and the Village of East Hills had 418.
Manhasset, which has remained comparatively low since the beginning of the pandemic, had 1,248 cases, with nearly half coming from town-governed areas. It is the only analyzed area with fewer than 1,300 cases.
A total of 135,711 Nassau County residents had tested positive for the virus as of Wednesday, and 2,768 had died since the pandemic began. Nearly 700 Nassau residents remained hospitalized due to the virus, with 107 in intensive care units and 63 on ventilators, according to county figures. All three hospitalization figures are decreases from last week.
Throughout New York, more than 1.5 million people had tested positive for the coronavirus as of Wednesday, according to state figures. Of that total, more than 44,500 people had died. In New York City, 647,000 people had contracted the virus, and 27,856 had died.
