Dr. Lawrence Schiff, emergency room chief at Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport, receives the COVID-19 vaccine Monday morning. (Courtesy of Stony Brook ELIH) As New York’s battle with COVID-19 nears an anticipated second peak, the positivity rate in Suffolk County climbed above 8 percent for the first time in seven months this week. Long Island might not return to the positive testing levels it saw in April, but with Christmas just days away, officials are bracing for a dark start to the new year. “[Last Tuesday] we reached a troubling new level in this ongoing crisis, an 8.2 percent positivity rate for new COVID-19 cases,” said County Executive Steve Bellone. “While we don’t put too much stock into any one day’s numbers, it is clear that we are moving in the wrong direction with new cases and hospitalizations continuing to rise at alarming rates.”