Featured Story

Island records 3 new COVID cases

Three new cases of COVID-19 have been reported on Shelter Island this week, bringing the total number to 72 cases diagnosed since the pandemic started in 2020.

Deputy Town Supervisor Amber Brach-Williams reported the numbers at Tuesday’s Town Board work session and said the positivity rate this week is at 5.6% countywide.

Police Chief Jim Read continues to monitor statistics available through the Suffolk County Department of Health Services.

Three major activities are slated for the weekend, but no changes are being recommended for those events. The first is a tennis tournament to benefit the Shelter Island Library Saturday morning, beginning at 8 a.m. on the courts at Shelter Island School. At 10 a.m., the Chamber of Commerce Arts and Crafts Fair starts on the lawn outside the school and continues through 5 p.m. Just across the street outside the Shelter Island Community Center — the building that houses the American Legion Post and Town Recreation Center — Green Expo goes from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

There has been no discussion of changing COVID protocols, while encouraging people to wear masks in public and maintain a 6-foot distance from others, despite all three events being outside.

Supervisor Gerry Siller said the Town will be carefully following advice from Stony Brook Southampton Hospital medical personnel about who will be eligible for third inoculations of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. Local hospitals have continued to offer inoculations to the unvaccinated or those who had one shot, but are due for a second.

More information on the booster shot is expected to be made public by the Centers for Disease Control and the Federal Drug Administration in September.

Initial information called for third shots to be taken by medical personnel and patients with suppressed immunology systems, including patients with cancer, HIV, transplant recipients and the elderly.