Nassau officials are encouraging residents to take advantage of the beaches, parks, hiking and biking trails open across the area over the holiday weekend, while abiding by social distance guidelines.  

Nassau County Executive Laura Curran announced the Motor Parkway Trail in Westbury has been completed, with the expansion of the multi-use hiking and biking trail. The trail is open to the public and starts from Hofstra University up Merrick Avenue and to Old Country Road.

In addition, Nassau officials say the 930-acre Eisenhower Park will be open this weekend.

On Wednesday, Curran announced that Nickerson Beach will be open for the holiday weekend at 50% capacity and for residents only. Strict guidelines will be enforced at the beach.  On Thursday, the county announced cabanas at Nickerson Beach will be open on Father’s Day, but renters will not be able to congregate at them. Cabanas will only be allowed to be used for storing food and beach chairs.  The county will offer a reduced rate for those who use the cabanas.

Meanwhile, officials announced that Long Island as a region is meeting four of the seven metrics needed to begin phase one of opening following the pandemic.

Officials say the region has fallen back on hospital capacity – the state requires hospitals to have 30% empty beds, however the region has about 29%. Curran says she will speak with hospital executives on how to best address the metric.

In addition, Nassau has not met the number of contact tracers needed, but is expected to meet the criteria shortly.

Lastly, despite the fact the death rate has lowered in the county, it is not meeting the metric the state has set forth. On Thursday, five new deaths were reported in the county.  

On a positive note, county officials reported they have seen a 77% decrease of hospitalizations since the peak of the pandemic in mid-April.

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Nassau beaches to open at 50% capacity starting next Friday 

Nassau to restrict Nickerson Beach access to county residents only