Coronavirus: 1st Nassau County Employee Dies

NASSAU COUNTY, NY — Nassau County has lost its first employee to the new coronavirus. At a news conference Saturday, County Executive Laura Curran said the woman was 65 years old and worked in the Department of Social Services.

"We grieve her loss and our hearts are with her family," Curran said.

Curran said there were eight new deaths related to the virus in the county since Friday. They were five men and three women, ranging in age from 56 to 92.

The total number of positive cases of COVID-19 in the county was 5,537 as of Saturday. That represents an increase of 880 from Friday, Curran said.

She said there were 906 coronavirus-related hospitalizations, both positive cases and those patients waiting on test results, as of Friday.

"Some of our hospitals report having several symptomatic patients coming in every hour," Curran said, adding that one hospital network said it was experiencing a 12-fold increase in patients from a week ago.