TestMV now offering online registration

Updated 5:10 pm

On Wednesday, TestMV began offering online registration and appointment booking, as well as same-day testing, through a Quest Diagnostics website, according to a press release from TestMV.

TestMV, the testing site set up at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School that is testing asymptomatic individuals, previously only accepted registration through a call center, but is now offering a streamlined method to sign up and ramp up testing on Martha’s Vineyard.

The link to register and choose an appointment is health.questdiagnostics.com/IHC. There is also a QR code that those coming directly to the test site can instantly access to register.

The call center will still be open 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday and offers Portuguese-speaking agents.

“This new online capability gives people multiple ways to register, make an appointment and get tested for COVID-19,” Cynthia Mitchell, CEO of Island Health Care (IHC) which holds the clinical license to and oversees TestMV, said in the release. “Online won’t be for everyone, which is why we’re keeping the phone lines open, but it does add convenience and efficiency to the test site.”

Those who test positive will be contacted by a medical provider and followed up by a contact tracer. Appointments are only for those 18 years old and older and who are asymptomatic.

The TestMV site confirmed Wednesday it has tested 5,1244 people with 12 positives, 4,916 negatives, and 316 pending results.

This comes as cases are rising not only with increased TestMV testing, but around the Island and across the country.

The Martha’s Vineyard Hospital reported no new cases Wednesday morning. The hospital has tested 2,458 patients. Of those, 2,368 have tested negative and 55 are pending results.

On Monday, two new cases at the hospital marked five confirmed cases in the past week for the hospital. The new cases are a departure from last month, a span of four weeks where the hospital had no new confirmed cases.

On Friday, the Martha’s Vineyard boards of health confirmed that 38 of the 48 cases are no longer symptomatic and have been released from isolation. Four cases are still being followed by public health officials, and one case was unable to be contacted. 

The town of Aquinnah has tested 49 people. Of those, all 49 tests have come back negative and there are no pending results.

The Martha’s Vineyard Boards of Health have separately confirmed another positive case, bringing the Island’s total confirmed cases to 48.

The boards of health have linked 23 of the confirmed cases to several cases among eight different household groups. 

The Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, town of Aquinnah, boards of health, and TestMV, the testing site at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, each report their own testing numbers. Those numbers are then all compiled by the boards of health. The actual number of cases can be difficult to count due to lag time and overlaps in testing each day.

IHC’s website, which compiles numbers reported by each organization, says each positive test does not necessarily represent a newly infected individual.

“For example, a positive test reported on July 1, 2020 by Martha’s Vineyard Hospital was a second test for an individual who had previously tested positive. The Total Cases number reflects the most current accounting of unique individuals with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 on Martha’s Vineyard,” the site reads.

Of 48 of the confirmed cases, 28 are female, and 20 are male. Of those, 13 of the cases are aged 50-59 years old, 11 are 20-29 years old, eight cases are 60-69 years old, six are 30-39 years old, five are 20 years old or younger, three are 40-49, and two are 70 years or older.

The boards of health are also reporting on probable cases. As of Monday, the Island’s total number of presumed positives rose to 20 with one new probable case. Of those 17 were positive antibody tests, and three were symptomatically positive.

Of the probable cases, 12 are female and eight are male. Of the 20 presumed positive cases, seven are aged 60-69, four are aged 50-59, three are aged 40-49, three are aged 20-29, two are under 20 years old, and one is over the age of 70.

This all comes as Massachusetts is seeing a decline in confirmed cases, deaths, and hospitalizations, but also as the confirmed cases are increasing across the country.

At the state level Wednesday, there were 192 new confirmed cases, bringing the state total to 107,413. There were 18 new deaths which brought the total number of deaths to 8,249. There have been 1,063,155 tests conducted across Massachusetts.

In addition to the cases on Martha’s Vineyard, Cuttyhunk, the small Island part of the town of Gosnold reported eight new cases within a week after going months without a single case.

Updated to add new current COVID-19 numbers. — Ed.