WATCH: LI Community Hospital Discharges 500th Coronavirus Patient

PATCHOGUE, NY — Three months after the coronavirus pandemic hit New York and the Long Island area, Long Island Community Hospital in Patchogue celebrated the discharge of its 500th COVID-19 patient on Monday. The patient, 57-year-old Henry Perez, of Mastic, was discharged with a clap-out farewell by hospital administration and staff.

"We couldn’t be more excited to celebrate this amazingly strong and upbeat patient," President and CEO, Richard T. Margulis said. "Our frontline heroes put in their best so that he could continue to fight back to health and enjoy his life again."

Perez was treated in the hospital for the coronavirus, for a total of 31 days. He was first hospitalized after suffering from a fever for 10 days at home, but then his cough escalated to shortness of breath for five days until he started receiving care at the local hospital.

"Cornonavirus is no joke," Perez said. "My doctors, Dr. Manoj Trehan, Dr. John Hsu and Dr. Fazal Faroqui have been on top of it and helped me get passed this. The nurses were great with me, especially Tylyn Copeland, RN."

Perez will be headed to rehab following his discharge on Monday.

"Mr. Perez says he 'feels real good' and that’s all we want to hear," Margulis said. "That positivity will echo through our halls today, touching not only his caregivers, but all of us here at the hospital who want to see our patients get through this virus and back to where they belong."

Check out a video from the discharge courtesy of LI Community Hospital below: