New Covid-19 case reported on Shelter Island

Shelter Island has recorded another case of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

The Suffolk County Department of Health Services has listed the case on its website, bringing the total number of COVID cases to 11 since the pandemic started in late February. Two Islanders have reportedly died from the virus.

Police Chief Jim Read, who is the town’s emergency management coordinator, said Thursday afternoon that information about COVID-19 “is controlled by the county.”

The Health Department, the chief said, uses the home address given by those who test positive, which can be an Island address, or someone who is here but has a home addres somewhere else.

“The Health Department’s priority structure might not be putting one or two cases on a map,” Chief Read said. “Their priority is testing and contact tracing. Putting a number on a map doesn’t do much for anyone.”

A so-called “superspreader” event in Southold was reported this week. About one-third of all guests at an Oct. 17 wedding held at North Fork Country Club have tested positive for COVID-19, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone has announced.

So far, 30 of 91 guests at the wedding, which was held in violation of New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive order limiting catering hall guests to 50, have been reported as confirmed coronavirus cases. More testing results are pending, the county executive said.

According to the latest number from the county’s Health Department, Southold has 456 positive COVID-19 cases, Riverhead 881, Southampton 1,343 and East Hampton has 282.