Updated 12/21 @ 5:35 pm
There were 19 new cases of COVID-19 reported by the Martha’s Vineyard boards of health form over the weekend — nine cases on Saturday, five cases on Sunday, and five cases on Monday.
The Island boards of health have identified a new cluster of COVID-19 cases that are linked to a Bible study group on the Island. It’s the third cluster of cases reported on the Vineyard, including one involving Cronig’s and the other linked to a wedding at Lambert’s Cove Inn.
The Bible study cluster was first reported by the boards of health on Dec. 11 and included five participants that tested positive for COVID-19. A week later five more cases, linked to family members and household members, were added to that cluster.
This comes as Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, and Tisbury are all in the state’s red category in a troubling sign for the Island as it continues to see an increase in positive COVID-19 tests.
The red category means each town has had more than 25 total cases in the past two weeks since populations are under 10,000.
The change in case counts for three towns is labeled “higher” which means the number of new cases in the current two-week period are higher than the number of new cases during the last two-week period.
According to the state data, Tisbury has reported a total of 130 confirmed cases of COVID-19 of which 26 have been reported in the past two weeks with a 3.36 percent positivity rate. Oak Bluffs has reported 35 new cases in the same time period with a 7.54 percent positivity rate. In Edgartown, 31 new cases have been reported in the past two weeks with a 5.42 percent positivity rate.
The boards of health reported 50 cases last week. The week before that there were 65 cases of COVID-19 reported on the Island.
It’s been seven weeks since the Island’s first cluster of cases was linked to a wedding in October. Since then, the Island has seen 379 cases of COVID-19 — four times the 89 cases reported on the Island between when testing began in March and Oct. 25.
As of Monday, the hospital has administered 9,588 tests since testing began in March. Of those, 325 have tested positive, 9,212 negative, and 51 tests are pending results. As of Monday, there were currently two COVID-19 patients hospitalized, and both are in “fair condition,” according to hospital officials.
The hospital has posted a new public service announcement video on it’s COVID-19 page. The video is in both English and Portuguese.
As of Monday, TestMV has administered 26,891 tests, with 25,505 negative, 155 positive, and 1,231 pending results. Aquinnah is also conducting testing — 355 people have been tested with no positives, 348 negative results, and seven pending results.
Due to some individuals testing positive at both the hospital and the TestMV site, the total number of positives does not equal the number of positives added from each testing site, resulting in a discrepancy.
The 19 new cases ranged in age and consisted of seven females and 12 males— six in their 30s, three in their 20s, two in their 50s, two in their 40s, four younger than 20, one in their 60s, and one in their 70s.
Of all the Island’s 468 confirmed cases as of Monday, 238 are female and 230 are male. Of those cases, 115 are in their 30s, 81 are in their 20s, 69 are in their 50s, 68 are in their 40s, 79 are younger than 20, 38 are in their 60s, and 18 are older than 70.
The boards of health have linked 185 of the positive cases to other cases. Most connections are within family and household members or small social groups. There have been three reported clusters on the Island — Eight cases from the Lambert’s Cove wedding, 19 cases from Cronig’s supermarket, and 10 cases from a Bible study group.
There are 54 active cases of COVID-19 still being followed by public health officials. These 54 cases are all individuals that tested positive between Dec. 6 and Dec. 18.
The boards of health are also keeping track of probable cases. There have been 31 probable cases reported since March. Of those, 22 received positive antibody tests, and nine have been symptomatically diagnosed. Of those, 16 are female and 15 are male. There are seven in their 60s, seven in their 20s, six in their 50s, five in their 40s, two younger than 20, three older than 70, and one in their 30s.
The surge in cases is happening statewide, with confirmed cases, positivity rates, hospitalizations, and deaths rising or staying at high numbers. On Monday, the Department of Public Health reported 3,760 new positive cases, with a 5.94 percent seven-day positivity rate. The number of active cases statewide was up, with an estimated 84,368 active cases statewide. The state saw 41 new deaths Monday, for a total of 11,759 statewide. The average age of those deaths is 81.
If they pray hard enough and sincerely enough, their god might protect them from any serious complications. However, I am not depending on The Flying Spaghetti Monster to protect me, and I would really appreciate it if everyone took adequate steps to protect not only themselves , but our entire community.
As I said, tell all the people reading the on line Times, the correct way to protect themselves and with what real type of N95 mask not just a bandana and not pulled down over the nose. The reports on MVT tell us about those infected but not the down and dirty.
Donald Trump learned during his life, repeat, repeat, repeat. That’s why we have so many believing there is only “Fake News” put out by the radical left and and how good a job he has done. None of which is true to the extent the lemmings believe.
Hear, hear!
If you jump out of a plane without a parachute, don’t blame God when it doesn’t open. You have to do your part too.
Rrrrrrrrrrrr..!
It would be helpful that MVT in reporting these cases it explaines, at least once a week, what asymptomatic AND symptomatic mean.
AND maybe it might help those who still feel that groups can get together without proper protection, be informed about the aftermath of ‘surviving’ a COVID-19 infection.
It AIN’T pretty and it can be long lasting….
Also it should be reported how many people have been transported off island and what their outcome is. It’s time we heard the down and dirty along with the hope and caring.
Time to take the gloves off tactfully and tell us which, why and where this Bible study took place.
Like; The bible study was in some ones home on Main St., in Strathmore, on Gilligans Island.
If you are outing stores, the SSA, Inns and the like it is about time to have the community know the approximate areas of breakouts in each community.
This does not out the participants but allows other individuals to choose if she or he wants to go to that establishment or wants to trust the establishment is taking things seriously.
Ms Hodsdon, what would you do with the information you received about the Bible Study? Would you go and malign them or do some virtue signalling with your mask? Its a virus, it will spread and break out and thankfully it only affects a very small percentage of people. Are we going to selectively impose our collective wrath on groups who ostensibly offend us?
Why can’t these folks meet on Zoom like most folks are doing? If God is everywhere, there’s no need to meet in person.