#Cuomo fears summer parties will spur community spread of COVID-19

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Suffolk County officials expressed alarm Tuesday that summer parties are contributing to the spread of the coronavirus.

The governor and Suffolk officials said attendees of a 4th of July party in Holtsville contracted COVID-19 from another participant who was infected, the type of spread that could trigger a larger cluster in the community.

“Here’s a true story about how quickly COVID can spread. At a 4th of July party in Suffolk County, at least one person was positive. Since the party, 35% of the people who attended have tested positive for COVID,” Cuomo tweeted Tuesday afternoon.

“It only takes one person at one party. Wear a mask and be smart.”

But Suffolk officials later said Cuomo overstated the infection rate.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone says four of the 18 attendees contracted COVID-19, an infection rate of 22 percent, not 35 percent.

Bellone added that state officials came to the 35 percent figure using preliminary data for three other party-goers who were being investigated but whose test results ultimately turned out to be negative.

The governor’s office later clarified that a lower percentage of partygoers in Holtsville were infected.

“If we are not smart, if we don’t wear masks and socially distance, cases will spike. No one wants to go back to the hell we experienced three months ago, so please stay vigilant,” Cuomo also said in a press release.

Cuomo said he’s concerned that a second wave of COVID-19 will hit New York from visitors traveling here from other hot-spot states where the killer bug is raging.

On Tuesday, he extended a travel advisory that would require visitors from four other states — New Mexico, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin — to quarantine for 14 days when they arrive in New York, bringing the total to 22 states covered under the edict.