Cape and Islands officials are beginning to worry the tide is turning against them in their battle against the coronavirus as beach towns flood with tourists and clusters of new cases emerge from parties.
Cases are climbing on Nantucket, where Nantucket Cottage Hospital on Wednesday reported a total of 40 positive tests since the start of the pandemic.
That might not seem dire compared to the thousands of cases that inundated cities like Chelsea and Brockton. But it’s a sharp rise from the 14 infections the island had accumulated through the end of June, according to Roberto Santamaria, Nantucket’s health and human services director. And it’s an increase from the 26 cases the state reported for Nantucket last Wednesday.
“We’re hoping it’s not the tip of the iceberg,” Santamaria told the Herald. “We’re hoping to maintain the flat curve.”
Officials expected cases to spike as Nantucket’s population swelled to 40,000 in the summer from 17,000. But Santamaria said what wasn’t as foreseen are the “risky behaviors” of people leaving restaurants without wearing their masks or not social distancing.
Now Nantucket’s Board of Health will hold a hearing Thursday to discuss rolling back restaurant hours to 11 p.m. or midnight in an effort to stop the spread.
“We’re hoping that people were to put their political and general ideas aside and please just respect the rules we have here,” Santamaria said.
Positive test rates rose in several Cape and Islands towns this week over last, according to data released each Wednesday by the state Department of Public Health.
Falmouth — where eight lifeguards tested positive in the past week after an off-duty social gathering — saw its positivity rate jump to 2.37% from 0.37% as it recorded 22 cases in the past two weeks.
Barnstable’s postivity rate ticked up to 1.85% from 1.45%. Brewster saw its positivity rise to 2.81% from 1.85%. In Chatham, where a coronavirus cluster tied to a house party triggered restaurant shutdowns, positivity ticked up to 1.44% from 1.37%.
The state’s average was 1.74%, up slightly from 1.67% in last week’s report.
Sean O’Brien, director of the Barnstable County Department of Health and Environment, said Cape towns reported a total of 20 new cases Tuesday — and that “a good portion of that is seeing some positives coming from these parties.”
While O’Brien said the “numbers are fluctuating” and that it’s too early to tell the true impact of large gatherings and summer tourism, “now is not the time for us to get lazy on these things.”
“Our biggest concern is people not following the protocols the governor has outlined,” O’Brien said. “It’s really important for us to continue with that or COVID is going to be around longer.”
