Updated Nov. 11 at 4:45 pm
There were 19 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 Wednesday — 12 from the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and seven reported from TestMV, in an alarming trend for the Island, which has now reported 43 new cases of COVID-19 in the past three days, and 76 in the past 16 days.
In a phone call with the Times, hospital CEO Denise Schepici said while we’re seeing an increased number of cases, the overall number is still relatively low. She said hospital officials have agreed to meet with the Island boards of health weekly on Mondays.
“We’re still less than ½ a percent. I don’t want to cause panic,” Schepici said. “I think the messages are getting out. We have PSAs that are going out. As bad as it is, this was not unexpected…I think the overall message should be, let’s get back to our disciplined behavior and stop this spread.”
At a Tisbury board of health meeting Tuesday, Maura Valley, who serves as a spokesperson for the Island boards of health, expressed frustration at the growing number of cases and referred to it as community spread of the virus caused by some “COVID fatigue” and lax behavior.
On Monday, in its largest single day report, the hospital reported 20 new cases of COVID-19 from over the weekend.
In total the hospital has tested 6,881 individuals since testing began in March. Of those 109 have tested positive, 6,680 have tested negative, and 92 are pending results.
One of the cases reported by the hospital on its website Wednesday was reported late Tuesday night and counted in Tuesday’s daily total. This means there were only 12 new cases reported Wednesday.
The surge in cases at the hospital continues a COVID-19 spike for the Island. The spike began on Oct. 26 when a cluster of cases was linked to an Island wedding. Boards of health have confirmed that at least 10 cases since then have been linked to the wedding.
These 69 cases in the past 16 days make up 46 percent of the Island’s now total 164 confirmed cases. The other 54 percent of cases were reported over the course of eight months, when testing began in March.
As of Tuesday, TestMV has now tested 19,514 individuals since it began testing in May. Of those, 47 have tested positive, 19,021 negative, and 446 pending results. The town of Aquinnah is also conducting its own testing. Aquinnah has tested 312 individuals with zero positives, 305 negatives, and seven pending results.
The 19 new cases on Wednesday spanned every age category besides those over the age of 70. There were five new cases in their 40s, five under the age of 20, two in their 30s, three in their 20s, two in their 50s, and one in their 60s. The age of one individual was unknown.
Of the total 164 confirmed cases, 90 are female and 74 are male. In total, 34 are in their 20s, 30 are in their 30s, 27 are in their 50s, 24 are younger than 20, 24 are in their 40s, 17 are in their 60s, and seven are older than 70.
On Friday, the boards of health reported that of all the confirmed cases, 103 are no longer symptomatic and have been released from isolation. One was lost to follow up and the others are being followed by public health officials. The number of non-symptomatic individuals released from isolation individuals is updated every Friday.
“I think it’s definitely community spread. What we’re seeing is some families and social groups, but we’re still in the process of doing the contact tracing and trying to get a sense of what this all means,” Valley told The Times on Monday.
Updated with 19 new cases. — Ed.