Updated Nov. 24
There were seven new cases of COVID-19 reported by the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital Tuesday, continuing the Island’s surge in cases, which has now stretched into its fourth week.
While the hospital reported seven new cases on its website, the boards of health only reported six new cases in their daily report leading to a discrepancy in data.
The Island reported 24 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported from over the weekend — 16 from the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, seven from TestMV, and one case reported from Convenient MD in Falmouth.
The Island reported 63 new cases last week, and 62 cases the week before that. The new cases also come as the Island heads into its fourth week of a jump in cases that began on Oct. 26, when public health officials reported a cluster of cases linked to a wedding at the Lambert’s Cove Inn. Since then, the Island has seen 177 cases of COVID-19 — more than all the cases reported on the Island between March and Oct. 25 combined.
According to an expanded report from the Martha’s Vineyard boards of health on Friday, there are 68 active cases of COVID-19 that health officials are still following. All of the active cases are from individuals who tested positive between Nov. 8 and Nov. 20. All other cases are no longer symptomatic, and have been released from isolation. Of all the cases, 108, or 44 percent, are connected to at least one other case. A majority of these connections are within family and household groups or small social groups. Two groups are considered clusters — the October wedding, to which health officials connected eight cases, and Cronig’s Market, which has reported 19 cases.
As of Saturday, the hospital, which tests individuals based on a strict set of criteria including those who are symptomatic, has tested 7,822 individuals since testing began in March. Of those, 191 have tested positive, 7,541 have tested negative, and 90 are pending results.
The hospital also has one patient admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 who has been admitted since last Thursday. The hospital airlifted a COVID patient earlier this week who was in critical condition.
As of Friday, TestMV, which tests asymptomatic individuals, has tested 22,701 individuals since it began testing in May. Of those, 84 have tested positive, 21,209 negative, and 1,408 pending results.
TestMV is also returning to five-day-a-week testing to meet demand amid the surge in cases.
The town of Aquinnah is also conducting its own testing. Aquinnah has tested 339 individuals with zero positives, 316 negatives, and 23 pending results.
Of the Island’s 270 confirmed cases, 138 are female and 132 are male. Of those, 63 are in their 30s, 46 are in their 20s, 45 are in their 50s, 45 are in their 40s, 42 are younger than 20, 22 are in their 60s, and 10 are older than 70.
Due to incongruent data from the hospital and the boards of health, information on one of Tuesday’s cases was not available.
The boards of health are also keeping track of probable cases. On Monday there was one new symptomatically diagnosed and one antibody positive. There are 27 probable cases reported on the Island. Of those, 22 received positive antibody tests, and five have been symptomatically diagnosed. Of those, 15 are female and 12 are male. There are seven in their 60s, six in their 20s, six in their 50s, three in their 40s, two younger than 20, and three older than 70.
The surge in cases is happening statewide. On Tuesday, the Department of Public Health reported 2,225 positive cases — a 3.02 percent seven-day positivity rate, with an estimated 40,449 active cases statewide.
The state continues to see new deaths as well, with 20 reported Tuesday, for a total of 10,551 statewide.
Updated with Tuesday’s data.