Coronavirus cases continued to creep upward on Wednesday, as two more new confirmed positive Covid-19 patients were reported on the Island, raising the total Vineyard caseload to 56 since the pandemic began.
Both new patients were tested at TestMV, the comprehensive coronavirus testing site at the regional high school. The two new patients are both females, with one in her 20s and one in her 50s, according to a daily demographic report released by the Island boards of health.
There are now five active coronavirus cases on the Island, and three positive tests in the past week. Because all five cases were tested at the regional high school, it is likely that the patients are asymptomatic, according to health agents. TestMV has reported seven positive tests since opening to the public at the beginning of June.
One of the new patients reported by the boards of health on Wednesday also tested positive at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, causing some confusion and overlap in Island case reporting.
The hospital, one of two testing sites on the Island, is continuing to test symptomatic patients and their close contacts for the virus.
In an email earlier in the day, hospital spokesman Katrina Delgadillo reported the new positive case at the hospital, but qualified the case by saying that the person had likely also tested positive at the high school site.
“It is my understanding that this person was tested at MVH first, though subsequently tested at the high school,” Ms. Delgadillo said.
Later in the day, Tisbury health agent Maura Valley confirmed that the individual had been tested at both sites, meaning that although TestMV reported two new positives and the hospital reported one, only two people in total had tested positive Wednesday.
“I wanted to confirm Katrina’s earlier email that one of our positives today is the same individual that just tested positive at the hospital,” Ms. Valley wrote.
The hospital now has had 30 patients test positive for the virus. The last two positive test patients reported by the hospital have also tested positive at TestMV, meaning there likely hasn’t been a positive symptomatic patient on the Island since late May.
TestMV has tested 3,548 patients since the pandemic began, with seven positives, 3,148 negatived and 393 pending. The hospital has tested 1,864 patients, with 30 positives, 1,791 negative and 43 pending.
The town of Aquinnah has also provided 30 patients with self-administered saliva test kits. All 30 tests have come back negative.
The two new cases on Wednesday come after a busy Fourth of July weekend on the Island and as cases continue to surge throughout parts of the American south and west. On Nantucket, cases have doubled in the past two weeks after the Island went nearly two months without reporting a case.
But throughout the state, daily case totals remain low, with 162 patients testing positive on Wednesday — down from daily highs in the 2,000’s during mid-April.
The DPH did report 30 new deaths on Wednesday, as the state passed a grim milestone that brought the number of deaths to 8,028. No patients have died from the virus on the Vineyard.
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