Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone provided his Friday COVID-19 update with updated numbers showing another decrease in hospitalizations.

- Death toll stands at 1,203. On April 1, death toll was 69.
- 98 COVID-19 discharges over past day. Highlights ex-Babylon Fire Chief Michael Sasuk who returned home after 38 days.
- Overall cases hits 35,280, 478 new cases.
- Another day of decline in hospitalizations to 903 total. 67 fewer than yesterday.
- Suffolk will pass CDC guidelines of 14 days of declines on May 5 if numbers don't increase.
- Bellone announces Suffolk Forward Initiative - planning to reopen along with having enough testing and an effective contact tracing program in place.
- Work groups in place to plan reopening - summer planning, business planning, school planning, public facility planning and more.
- Special focus on small businesses in the initiative. 
- 37,000 pieces of PPE distributed over last day - 3.1M total so far.
- County using a mental health/behavioral health campaign that is being opened up to county residents after it was exclusive to county employees.

 

MORE: LIVE BLOG - Coronavirus updates from the tri-state area and beyond 

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