Southold Seafood Worker Has Coronavirus; Greenport Schools Close

GREENPORT, NY — An employee at Southold Fish Market was diagnosed with coronavirus, company officials announced Wednesday night. Meanwhile, Greenport schools closed Thursday for two days after three students were quarantined.

"We have been notified by an employee that he has been diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus," a post on the Southold Fish Market Facebook page read Wednesday. "As a precaution we have sanitized the entire establishment and will close tomorrow so the Board of Health can be notified and a protocol can be established. Thank you for your understanding."

The Greenport Union Free School District sent this message: "Although the district has not received a positive result of COVID 19 in a student or staff member, we have made the decision to close tomorrow, March 12 and Friday, March 13. This is out of an abundance of caution and will allow the district to complete a deep, thorough cleaning of the building ... We will remain in constant contact with the Suffolk County Department of Health."

As the number of coronavirus cases continued to rise across Long Island, three Greenport students were placed in mandatory quarantine, Gamberg said Wednesday.

"They are asymptomatic, and we have been repeatedly advised that they do not pose a risk, per the Suffolk County Health Department," Gamberg said.

Also on Wednesday, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said that there was a connection between one of Suffolk County's six confirmed cases, a woman in her 20s who is remains isolated at her home in Southold, and the first confirmed Suffolk case, a man in his 40s who works at the Greenport Harbor Brewing Co. in Peconic. He was initially treated at Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport and was transferred to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, where he remains isolated in "fair" condition and "improving," hospital officials said Tuesday.

A per diem employee at Peconic Landing was confirmed to have coronavirus Tuesday; Peconic Landing officials said that individual worked in a "relatively isolated area, with minimal contact to our population." Efforts are underway to continue sanitizing the facility but no residents are believed to be impacted, Peconic Landing CEO and President Bob Syron told Patch Wednesday. All residents, he added, are being monitored closely.

Jill Gierasch, superintendent of the Mattituck-Cutchogue School District, told Patch Wednesday that some families are choosing to keep their children home on a voluntary basis but also said that decision had "nothing to do with district direction." The district, she added, has received no quarantine direction from the Suffolk County Health Department.

The Shoreham-Wading River School District closed Monday, sending buses of students back home, after it was learned that the spouse of a staff member may have had contact with coronavirus; the district reopened Tuesday.

As of Wednesday, Nassau County continues to have the highest number of cases, now reaching 25. One of those is in serious condition, county officials said at a news conference Wednesday. Suffolk County saw its cases jump overnight, going from one to six, bringing the total on Long Island to 31. There are 232 people in mandatory or precautionary quarantine in Nassau, and eight in mandatory quarantine in Suffolk.