With a small bump in the Island’s positive Covid-19 cases over the weekend and Boston’s emergence as a hot spot, Martha’s Vineyard Hospital officials continued to reiterate their worry about a surge on the Vineyard, especially as spring approaches.

“The increase in our numbers, even as small as they are, really speaks directly to our concern about a surge,” hospital president and CEO Denise Schepici said at a press briefing Tuesday morning. “Boston is a quick ride away from Martha’s Vineyard. We may be an Island, but we are not immune.”

The hospital reported three new cases over the weekend, after a nine-day streak of reporting no new positive cases on the Island. On Sunday, federal immunologist Dr. Deborah Birx cited Boston during her daily press briefing at the White House when discussing emerging areas of concern nationwide.

“I am very worried,” Ms. Schepici added.

As of Tuesday morning, the hospital has conducted 271 tests for the coronavirus, with 15 tests coming back positive, 256 negative, and no tests pending. The hospital currently has no one hospitalized with the virus.

State figures released in the afternoon showed 1,556 new cases in Massachusetts, down from a high of more than 2,600 a week ago. There were 152 more deaths attributed to COVID-19, for a total of 1,961 to date. 

At the hospital briefing, officials confirmed three patients have been hospitalized with the virus since the outbreak began, and that all three of those patients were transferred off-Island for care. Two of those patients, both of whom received medical flights to Boston hospitals, were hospitalized prior to their transfer.

The briefing was hosted by Ms. Schepici, as well as the hospital’s head of nursing Claire Seguin and hospital spokesman Katrina Delgadillo.

Hospital officials also said they will be refusing any more transfer requests from maternity patients seeking to relocate their care to the Vineyard, citing an unusually large number of requests in the past week.

“To ensure the safety of moms and babies already in our queue, our services cannot accept any transfer of request care to the hospital,” Ms. Schepici said “We are asking women who are pregnant to remain with their current obstetrical care, and to avoid travel to the Island.”

Ms. Schepici said the hospital has received nine transfer of care requests in the maternity department over the past week. She described it as an abnormally large number — for any time of year or season.

“This is something in the past that we have welcomed, and in the past we would staff up for our usual summer volume,” Ms. Schepici said. “But we have seen an usual number of women who are seeking refuge here on the Island, seeking new appointments and new care. And we just don’t have the staff for that capacity.”

The hospital has a four-bed maternity unit that officials have said could be retrofitted in case of a surge in coronavirus patients on the Island. It is common practice for expectant mothers to transfer care to the Island depending on their birth and neonatal schedule. Ms. Schepici also said the hospital had received requests for other transfers of care, but not the same volume as maternity patients. She said the increase in requests for care added to her concern about travel to the Island, especially as summer approaches. Finally, she thanked towns and the Vineyard construction community for extending the current construction bans for one more week.

Ms. Schepici sent an email last week that proved influential as towns mulled extending their construction bans past April 21. Towns ultimately decided to extend the current bans until April 27, with guidelines for one and two-man crews to get back to work after that date. But with cases in Boston surging, Ms. Schepici said her concern about spread on the Island remains.

“We are so happy that the construction community decided to defer a week, but we are seeing huge numbers in Boston, and if start to have more people coming from Boston, I am very worried that we will start to see a precipitous surge,” Ms. Schepici said.