No new cases of coronavirus were reported Tuesday, marking the ninth day in a row without a confirmed positive on the Island even as testing capacity continues to expand.
The Island’s two Covid-19 testing sites have tested more than 700 patients in the past week, with none of the tests coming back positive.
In their daily online testing update, the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital reported that it had passed the 1,100-patient threshold for Covid-19 tests. The hospital has now tested 1,103 patients for the disease, with 28 positives, 1,042 negatives and 33 pending.
No one is currently hospitalized with the virus, although four individuals have been hospitalized since the outbreak began and three have been transferred off-Island. None of those cases are still active, according to the Island boards of health.
Testing at the hospital is currently limited to symptomatic patients and their close contacts. Two individuals have tested positive for the virus off-Island, bringing the total number of Island patients who have tested positive to 30.
The Island has also had 12 residents test positive for antibodies and three who have been diagnosed symptomatically, bringing the Island’s total coronavirus caseload to 45, according to the Island boards of health.
A second testing facility at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High school opened to the public last week, focused on testing asymptomatic patients on the Island. The facility is the result of a unique public-private partnership between Quest Diagnostics, Island Health Care and the boards of health.
As of Tuesday the new facility had tested 501 patients for the virus, with 432 tests coming back negative and 68 pending. Nearly all the first week’s tests — around 300 — were for high priority individuals, and all came back negative.
Although tests were initially limited to high priority individuals, including front-lines medical workers, grocery store employees, site volunteers, healthcare workers and the elderly, testing capacity has now expanded to include all Islanders.
Mary Breslauer, a communications spokesman for the initiative, said the call center has been told to schedule any callers for the earliest possible time slot or their desired date.
The current wait time to receive a test is about a week, although some specific time slots are available sooner, according to Ms. Breslauer. Testing capacity has ranged from 50 to 80 patients per day at the site, she said.
Ms. Breslauer said to date 740 appointments had been booked via the call center for June from 988 calls, about a 75 per cent close rate. But Island Health Care had booked additional appointments before the call center was opened, bringing the total number of appointments booked to 923 for June so far, she said.
The biggest day so far will be Wednesday, with 104 tests booked, she said.
In response to concerns about long wait times on the phone, the call center is also planning to hire more operators to speed up the scheduling and call process, Ms. Breslauer said. Although she did not have exact numbers, she estimated that the site had scheduled more 1,000 patients so far for the month of June, including those already tested.
The testing site is also accelerating a public information campaign. Ms. Breslauer 6,000 flyers have been printed in English and Brazilian Portuguese to increase awareness, ads would be running in both Island newspapers.
“We’re really trying to ramp that up,” she said.
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