longisland

Officials
are urging New Yorkers to take action after a massive spike in COVID-19 cases
ahead of the upcoming holidays. 

Gov. Kathy
Hochul says the winter surge is already here, with a combination of omicron and
delta variants along with the flu season ramping up on top of it all. 

The surge
comes following a set state mask mandate made by the governor – which requires everyone to
wear a mask in any indoor space –
unless they require full vaccination proof. 

"This
is a crisis. This is a health care crisis and people are going to die,” said Gov. Hochul. 

On Long
Island, the COVID-19 positivity rate is now more than 7.5% - the highest
rate in nearly a year.

<a href="https://longisland.news12.com/category/long-island-coronavirus">CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE</a>

<a href="https://longisland.news12.com/cdc-1-3-million-cases-of-covid-19-a-week-possible-by-the-end-of-christmas-week">MORE: CDC: 1.3 million cases of COVID-19 a week possible by the end of Christmas week</a>

On Long Island, the COVID-19 positivity rate is at now more than 7.5% - the highest rate in nearly a year.

Long Island

LI | Weather

LIFORECAST

A quick update on our storm issues across Long Island. So this is what's happening as of right now. We're still dealing with that system that's been bringing an abundance of rain and now it is the winds that is going to be the double whammy or even the second issue for us as we continue throughout the rest of our Sunday nights into our Monday morning. Now, a lot of that heavy rainfall has been moving quickly, but now it's impacting much more of Suffolk County over towards Port Jefferson and over towards Islip and our Twin Forks areas as well. We are still potentially gonna be looking at more rounds of heavy rainfall to be impacting Nassau County in the western end of Suffolk County as we get into the rest of tonight. So again, just make sure that you, if you are gonna be out for tonight or even heading into tomorrow morning, you're planning ahead because things are gonna get a bit not only wet but still gonna be a bit messy as we start off our Monday morning. So make sure you plan ahead and leave a bit early if you need to. Now for western side of Suffolk County and for Nassau County, we do have a flooded are in effect until we get into just a few minutes past midnight for us, for tonight. But if we continue to see the heavy rainfall, we could see that extended as a possibility. So it's one thing where we are going to be monitoring here at the storm watch news, 12 weather team. But until then, here's also what we're looking at as of right now. So wind speeds are really starting to pick up, especially along the South shore, near 40 MPH wind gusts as of right now. And then the rain again, we're gonna be looking at another potential round of heavy rainfall for the next several hours going into our early Monday morning, not until about close to sunrise when we start to see that rain really lose its intensity and just become light rainfall going into our Monday morning. So once we're heading out, it's still gonna be a bit of the wet side for us, but still be mindful of wet roads, flooded areas as well because even for earlier, for today, as if you were going to be traveling on the lie, it's still gonna be a bit of a mess because we're not gonna be looking at this rain to really end for us until we toward late Monday morning and early afternoon. But right behind it, we're still gonna be dealing with some windy conditions. So overnight, we could be seeing again wind speeds, clocking from 42 near 60 MPH for some areas, mainly along the South shore, the northern shore areas. We are gonna be seeing the winds not being as strong, but still could be a bit of an issue, especially as we get into our Monday afternoon where we are anticipating a once again windy day for our Monday. So taking a look at how much rain we could be seeing from the rest of this event. Nassau County. Not as much unless it's closer towards the Suffolk County area, uh, near Hicksville, which would be close to about two inches. But overall, we could still see three inches of rainfall for some areas as well. A quick look at our 10 day forecast. Once we're done with our storm watch for Monday morning, we're looking at smooth sailing for the next couple of days.

https://vod.chdrstatic.com/transcode/360ec496-92b3-4d1b-bb6b-d49ee4f0447c/360ec496-92b3-4d1b-bb6b-d49ee4f0447c.transcribe

Storm brings heavy downpours & high, gusty winds through the morning. Stay with News 12 for updates.

‘This is a health crisis and people are going to die’: Gov. Hochul urges NYers to take action