Confirmed cases of COVID-19 soared last week with Martha’s Vineyard health councils reporting 101 new cases between March 28 and April 3.
The 101 new cases are more than double the 47 new cases reported during the week of March 21-27 and more than the next highest weekly total this year, which was 99 cases reported during the first week of January.
Case groups continue to appear and grow across the island with a new group of nine people connected to cases at Barn Bowl & Bistro. According to a Facebook post, this restaurant will remain closed for the next few days. A group at Shirley’s Hardware has grown to six boxes and a group of boxes linked to King’s Barbershop has grown to eight.
The island had five other groups, including a wedding in October (eight cases), Cronig’s Market (19 cases), a Bible study group (11 cases), MV Hospital (five cases) and Project Headway (four cases).
A cluster is defined as more than two people from different families or households with a shared source of infection.
In total, there have been 1,097 positive results confirmed on the island since the beginning of the tests in March – 547 men and 550 women. There were also 61 probable cases – 35 men and 26 women. There were 398 cases – 36 percent of the total – that were associated with at least one other case. In most cases, this involved family members or small social groups.
The hospital has already administered 15,621 tests, with 782 positive results. There were 14,764 negative tests and there are 67 results pending.
Meanwhile, TestMV, which is located in the parking lot of Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, has administered 35,022 tests, with 291 positive results, 35,409 negative results and 322 pending tests.
The city of Aquinnah conducted 444 self-administered tests, of which one was positive, 441 negative and two pending results.
Martha’s Vineyard public schools administered 9,469 tests. Of these, seven had positive results.
The Gay Head Wampanoag Tribe (Aquinnah) reported a total of seven positive cases of COVID-19.
Due to the way the tests are performed, there may be a discrepancy between the number of positive individuals and the number of positive tests reported.
Meanwhile, until Friday, the hospital administered more than 11,000 total doses of the vaccine – 6,853 first doses and 5,524 second doses.
The vaccine’s eligibility was expanded on Monday to those aged 55 and over. The next round of vaccination appointments at the hospital will be available for registration on Saturday, April 10, at 8 am. Qualified individuals can enroll in bit.ly/mvhospitalvaccine.
Eligible for vaccines include people over 60, individuals over 18 with two chronic health conditions, adults working in public and private homes for the elderly, educators and elementary and high school staff, day care centers and workers in the following categories: restaurants, cafes, food, agriculture, retail, food service, grocery, convenience stores, food pantries, traffic, public works, sanitation, public health, judicial system and funeral services.