Island at 38 confirmed cases

Lag time and overlap in reporting Island cases causes confusion.

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The hospital reported its 37th case of COVID-19 on Monday. — Lexi Pline.

As Massachuestts eases into phase three of the state’s reopening plan, the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital reported a new case Wednesday, but that case is the same person who recently tested positive at the Test MV site. The Island’s number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is not at 38.

Some patients are tested more than once which can result in a discrepancy between the number of positive individuals and the number of positive test results.

The hospital went the entire month of June without reporting a new case before confirming No. 29 on July 1, which accounts for most of the Island’s 38 cases.

As of Wednesday, the hospital has tested 1,864 people, with 1,791 testing negative, and 43 tests still pending.

TestMV, the Island Healthcare testing site at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, which tests asymptomatic individuals, confirmed its seventh positive case Wednesday.

In total, TestMV has tested 3,548 people. There are 393 individuals awaiting test results.

The town of Aquinnah is also conducting self-administered saliva tests. So far, 30 people have been tested. All have come back negative.

Test kits are provided by the Aquinnah board of health. They are available for pick up at the board of health office window at the Aquinnah Town Hall. The test can be taken at home and mailed to a lab for testing.

The 38 cases are the total COVID-19 cases reported by Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, Island Health Care (IHC), and the boards of health. With patients getting tested at both the hospital and TestMV, and each organization releasing their own reports, confirmed cases can be difficult to calculate.

Of the 38 cases, 23 are female, and 15 are male. Ten of the cases are aged 50-59 years old, nine are 20-29 years old, seven cases are 60-69 years old, five are 30-39 years old, three are 20 years old or younger, two are 40-49, and two are 70 years or older.

The boards of health have also started reporting on probable cases. On Friday, the Island’s total number of presumed positives was 18, of which 15 were positive antibody tests, and three were symptomatically positive.

Of those, 10 are female and eight are male. Of the 18 presumed positive cases, six are aged 60-69, four are aged 50-59, three are aged 40-49, two are aged 20-29, two are under 20 years old, and one is over the age of 70.

At the state level Wednesday, there were 162 new confirmed cases, bringing the state total to 104,961. In total, 30 new deaths brought the total number of deaths to 8,028. There have been 910,354 tests conducted across Massachusetts.

 

1 COMMENT

  1. First paragraph typo? “The Island’s number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is not at 38.”

    So, another way of looking at it– The hospital reported no new cases in June, but since July 1st, eight days in to summer crowds of people not wearing masks and not social isolating, we have 9 or 10 new cases. Okay, then. Are people really going to the gym and movie theaters and dining indoors in restaurants? Welcome Phase 3. I’ll stick to phases 1 and 2.

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