The Island has now gone a full week without recording any new positive laboratory coronavirus tests, according to a demographic report from the Island boards of health that came out Friday.
There are also no currently active cases on the Island — a first since mid-June, when the Island went nearly two weeks without recording a case of Covid-19.
The current seven-day case lull, the longest since June, has transpired just as an unprecedented summer season on the Island comes to a close. Labor Day — the traditional change of season — falls on Monday.
Although both July and August reported the Island’s highest new positive test totals of any two months since the pandemic began, case numbers have largely held steady over the summer, even as the Island’s population and testing capacity has increased dramatically since the spring.
There have also been no Covid-19 hospitalizations since late spring, and the Vineyard has avoided the more dramatic case spikes seen in other summer communities, like Nantucket and parts of the Cape.
Sixty-seven individuals have tested positive for the virus through a laboratory test, and another 24 are considered probable cases, either testing positive for antibodies or receiving a symptomatic case diagnosis, putting the Island’s total coronavirus case count at 91.
Of the 67 positive laboratory cases, 24 are male and 43 are female. The age breakdown for cases is as follows: nine under 20; 14 in their 20’s; 11 in their 30’s; 4 in their 40’s; 17 in their 50’s; nine in their 60’s; and three over the age of 70. Twenty-five, or 40 per cent of the cases, are linked to another case through a household or family group.
The four most recent cases on the Island, which occurred between August 23 and August 29, have been completed, meaning the individuals are no longer in isolation and have been released from monitoring.
At a Chilmark selectman’s meeting on Thursday, public health agent Marina Lent said in an update to selectmen that the Island’s two-week case average has consistently been sitting at about seven for much of the summer. The state DPH uses the two-week positive test rate as one of its main metrics for determining virus incidence.
Ms. Lent said that seven was a low number, considering the Island’s demographics.
“All the indicators point to a very slow transmission,” Ms. Lent said. “We are at a steady rate. It’s not nothing, but it is low-ish.”
Ms. Lent said it was important on the Island to stay vigilant, despite the low count.
“If we maintain good practices, it might remain low-ish. That’s as good as we could hope for, and I had not expected to find us in as good a condition as this, this time of year,” Ms. Lent said. “But I don’t trust the virus for a second.”
Statewide, the DPH reported 219 new coronavirus cases Friday and 22 new deaths. There are now over 120,000 residents in the state who have tested positive for the virus, and 8,892 who have died.
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