(March 29, 2021) One new coronavirus case was reported on Nantucket Monday from the small backlog of tests awaiting processing. The island's testing sites are both closed Sundays.
The results also included 25 negatives. One-hundred-forty-three new COVID-19 cases have been reported on the island since March 1, and 54 in the past week. There have been 1,334 positive tests on Nantucket since the pandemic began a year ago.
Health officials attributed the recent spike in part to new arrivals on the island.
"We're seeing a greater number of people coming from other parts of the country for seasonal work, not knowing they are infected, getting tested and testing positive," Nantucket Cottage Hospital president and CEO Gary Shaw said Thursday.
"We are not out of the woods by any means. A good part of the country and the world are not vaccinated at a time when people really want to travel. Levels of decline have plateaued within the state. That’s a bad sign. A ramp-up in caseload is going to be coming," he continued..
"We all need to be vigilant to cross this hurdle. It’s a race to get vaccines into arms. We are having another surge, and we need to be careful."
More powerful variants of the COVID-19 virus have been confirmed in Massachusetts, and on Friday evidence of the U.K. variant turned up in island sewage tested for coronavirus (Click here for story).
"We're seeing more people sicker, and more people in our emergency room now presenting for symptoms more severe than just going to drive-through testing," Shaw said.
There have been a small number of COVID-related admissions to the hospital in recent weeks, although Shaw did not have an exact number. No patients, however, have been transported off-island for a higher level of care in over a month, he said.
Health officials also attributed the recent surge to school-break-related travel and its aftermath. The public schools' winter break ended four weeks ago.
“People ignored the travel orders and traveled anyway,” Nantucket health director Roberto Santamaria said. “This is the consequence of that.”
Some of those who returned to the island infected with the virus then passed it on to others, he added.
"Though the people who were traveling may not be showing symptoms, they passed it on to other people, which resulted in a secondary outrbeak. We must reiterate, mask orders, travel orders, social distancing, workplace orders and safety regulations are there not only to protect you, but to protect those who you come in contact with," Santamaria said.
The 54 new cases reported in the past seven days represent an 8.3 percent weekly positivity rate.
"Our biggest line of defense is you working together with us to help prevent the spread of this heinous virus. We are in the 24th mile of a full marathon. The end is near, but we can’t quit now," Santamaria said in a recent Twitter message.
There have been four COVID-19 Nantucket deaths since last March, the most recent Dec. 22, 2020, a man in his mid-80s.
The second round of Phase 2 vaccinations began in early March. Appointments for teachers, childcare workers and school staff opened March 11, and front-line workers and those over 60 March 22. The state last week rolled out its plan for vaccination of the general public, which is scheduled to begin April 19. (Click here for story).
As of last Monday, 4,105 first doses and 1,483 second doses of vaccine have been administered on Nantucket.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on March 8 issued its first set of guidelines for fully-vaccinated people. Click here for more.
Free asymptomatic testing under the state's "Stop the Spread" program is administered indoors at the VFW on New South Road from 8-10 a.m. Monday-Saturday, but is limited to 75 tests per day.
Symptomatic testing is provided at the hospital's drive-through portico on Prospect Street from 7:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. Monday through Friday.
Starting Monday, April 5, all testing will be conducted at the hospital to free up additional vaccination space Click here for more.
Hospital staff have collected 29,082 nasal swabs for testing since the start of the pandemic. In addition to the 1,334 positive tests – 4.59 percent of the total number returned – 27,744 have come back negative, and four are awaiting results.
The Board of Health on Dec. 11, 2020 established a COVID-19 task force to better enforce and raise awareness of coronavirus regulations (Click here for story).
Gov. Charlie Baker late last month lifted the 9:30 p.m. statewide restaurant closing time, and in early March increased capcacity limits for restaurants, theaters, museums and other indoor locations. Additional capacity increases took effect March 22 (Click here for story).
Part-time in-class learning for Nantucket public-school students resumed Jan. 14 after being remote only since before Christmas. State officials are targetting April 5 for a full return to in-class learning for elementary-school students, and later in April for middle- and high-school students.
"I ask everyone on Nantucket to take personal responsibility and do all you can to reduce the potential for transmission in our community. That means wearing masks, staying physically distant, washing your hands, and not hosting or attending gatherings with people outside your immediate households," Shaw said recently.
"Most of all, we want our community to stay healthy, we want our economy to remain open, we want our public schools to be able to return to in-person learning. To that end, we must work together and apply the simple preventive measures that will keep this situation from spiraling out of control."
There have been 1,271 coronavirus cases confirmed on Nantucket in the past six and a half months, beginning Sept. 9, 2020 with a spike linked to workers in the trades, followed by a second surge in late September tied to a church function in which a communal meal was shared.
A third spike in early November was again tied to workers in the trades, followed by significant surges related to holiday gatherings and travel at Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's.
Prior to Sept. 9, Nantucket had one of the lowest COVID-19 rates in the state per 100,000 population, and the fewest confirmed cases of any county in Massachusetts.
The Board of Health on Oct. 6, 2020 voted to require all people on publicly-accessible property across the island to wear a mask, not just downtown and in Sconset, as was previously mandated.
It decided in mid-November against tightening restrictions to limit the total number of workers on a job site to six in an attempt to stop the spread (Click here for story).
Nantucket Cottage Hospital does not have an intensive-care unit and only five ventilators. Shaw has said patients in need of acute respiratory care would be transferred to mainland hospitals if at all possible.
The criteria for symptomatic drive-up testing at the hospital includes at least one of the following signs or symptoms consistent with a viral respiratory syndrome: subjective/documented fever, new sore throat, new cough, new runny nose/nasal congestion, new shortness of breath, new muscle aches or anosmia (new loss of sense of smell). Close contacts of COVID-19 positive patients and pre-procedure patients can also be tested.
For more information about symptomatic and asymptomatic testing, click here.
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