Updated
Eligibility for vaccines expanded Monday with individuals aged 60 and over, workers in transit, grocery stores, utility, food and agriculture, sanitation, public works, and public health workers now able to sign up.
The Martha’s Vineyard Hospital will open its sign-up portal at 5 pm Monday for another round of appointments for March 25, 26, and 27. On Saturday, March 27, eligible individuals can sign up at 8 am for appointments on March 30 and 31.
The next eligible cohort will be on April 5 for individuals aged 55 and over, and those with one chronic health condition. The general public, 16 and older, becomes eligible on April 19, according to the plan announced by Gov. Charlie Baker last week.
Sign-ups for COVID-19 vaccine appointments at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital filled up in 10 minutes Saturday morning with 81 first dose appointments made for March 22, 23, and 24.
In addition to the first dose appointments, the hospital has 838 second dose appointments scheduled for this week.
Martha’s Vineyard has seen a significant drop in confirmed cases of COVID-19 since highs in new cases at the beginning of the year. The Island averaged one case of COVID-19 per day for the past three weeks.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts advanced to step one of phase four Monday. The new phase allows sports venues such as Fenway Park and TD Garden to reopen with limited capacities. Restrictions on out-of-state travel are also reduced particularly with those who have been vaccinated.
Boards of health weekly report
The Martha’s Vineyard Boards of health reported nine new confirmed cases of COVID-19 for the week of March 14 to March 20.
Of the nine cases from the hospital, seven were symptomatic and two were asymptomatic. There were also three new probable cases reported.
The boards of health have switched to publishing a weekly COVID-19 report. There have been more than 1,000 COVID-19 cases on Martha’s Vineyard since the pandemic began a year ago — 949 confirmed cases and 58 probable positives.
The Vineyard reported the majority of its confirmed cases last fall with 191 cases in November and 235 cases in December. The previous monthly highs were 32 cases in October and 18 in July.
In total, there have been 949 confirmed positive results on the Island — 467 males and 482 females. There have also been 58 probable cases — 32 male and 26 female. There have been 351 cases — 37 percent of the total — that have been linked to at least one other case. In most instances those involved family members or small social groups. The Island has had five clusters, including an October wedding (8 cases), Cronig’s Market (19 cases), a Bible study group (11 cases), MV Hospital (5 cases), and Project Headway (4 cases).
The hospital has now administered 14,889 tests, with 673 positive results. There have been 14,174 negative tests and there are 34 results pending.
Meanwhile, TestMV, which is located in the parking lot at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, has now administered 35,010 tests, with 260 positive results, 34,432 negative results, and 318 tests pending.
The town of Aquinnah has conducted 442 tests, of which one has come back positive, 441 negative, with no pending results.
The Martha’s Vineyard public schools have administered 7,795 tests. Of those, four have tested positive. The public school data is updated once a week on Mondays, and for the third week in a row there were no new cases in the schools.
The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) has reported a total of seven positive cases of COVID-19.
Due to how tests are conducted, there can be a discrepancy between the number of positive individuals and the number of positive tests reported.
Updated with the report from the Island boards of health.
