No new coronavirus cases reported on Nantucket for the fourth straight day - The Inquirer and Mirror

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By Joshua Balling

(May 17, 2021) Nantucket Cottage Hospital reported  no new coronavirus cases  for the fourth straight day Monday. There have been seven cases in the past week, lowering the seven-day positivity rate to 2.7 percent, the lowest it's been in more than six months.

The hospital's drive-through testing sites are closed Sundays. Monday's results, from in-house testing,  included  four negatives, and one test is pending.

As of Monday, the hospital had administered 9,129 first-dose vaccinations, and 7,024 second-dose vaccinations at its New South Road VFW clinic. It plans to close the clinic by the end of the month as vaccine demand has declined, and instead offer vaccinations at the hospital and through a mobile clinic.

The town has received 1,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and is planning to target job sites and other areas where workers might have trouble getting time off during business hours to be vaccinated.

Starting Monday, vaccinations will be available to children 12 and older. Additional vaccine appointments have been added for this week, hospital officials said. If anyone was unable to sign up for a slot on Saturday, they can click here to check for new availability.

“Little by little we are getting through this, but what’s important to understand with the numbers we’re seeing on Nantucket as well as across the state is that COVID is one of those illnesses that’s going to be here to stay like the flu and the common cold," Nantucket health director Roberto Santamaria said.

The Nantucket Board of Health on April 20 lifted its outdoor mask mandate, a move Gov. Charlie Baker made statewide earlier in the week. Masks are still required indoors and where social distancing is not possible in Massachustts, despite the federal Centers for Disease Control's recent guidance that those who have been fully vaccinated do not have to wear masks indoors.

In addition to lifting the outdoor mask mandate, Baker's plan also includes raising gathering limits to 200 people indoors and 250 outdoors beginning May 29.

There have been five COVID-19 Nantucket deaths since the start of the pandemic, the most recent on April 7 – a woman in her mid-50s.

Hospital staff have collected 32,441 nasal swabs for testing since  last March. In addition to the 1,558 positive tests since the beginning of the pandemic – 4.80 percent of the total number returned – 30,882 have come back negative.

All COVID-19 tests are being administered at the hospital's 57 Prospect St. drive-through portico. Testing for those with symptoms and close contacts is held from 7-10 a.m. Monday-Friday.

COVID-19 elective testing for asymptomatic patients is by appointment only. Since drive-up testing ended April 28, the number of tests administered by the hospital has dropped by about 50 percent.

There have been 1,495 coronavirus cases confirmed on Nantucket in the past seven months, beginning Sept. 9, 2020 with a spike linked to workers in the trades, followed by a second surge in late September tied to a church function in which a communal meal was shared.

A third spike in early November was again tied to workers in the trades, followed by significant surges related to holiday gatherings and travel at Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's.  A moderate surge in early March was tied to school-break-related travel, followed by the most recent rise in cases, which is believed to be linked to the arrival of additional COVID-19 variants on the island.

Prior to Sept. 9, Nantucket had one of the lowest COVID-19 rates in the state per 100,000 population, and the fewest confirmed cases of any county in Massachusetts.

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