NANTUCKET, MASS. (WHDH) - A recent rise in coronavirus cases on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket can be blamed on hordes of summer tourists who have been flocking to the islands, officials said.
Nantucket had 38 confirmed positive COVID-19 cases as of Sunday and the Vineyard had 50, the Cape Cod Times reported.
Twenty-one of the cases on the Vineyard have been confirmed since June 1, with eight new cases reported after the Fourth of July — the highest single-week uptick since the start of the pandemic, according to the newspaper.
Nantucket had just 14 confirmed cases at the beginning of June. Since June 22, 23 additional cases have been reported.
“Since we’ve moved into the tourist season, we’re starting to see cases come up,” Gary Shaw, president and CEO of Nantucket Cottage Hospital, told the Times. “We think more cases are inevitable.”
Health officials on the Vineyard and Nantucket have been testing symptomatic and asymptomatic people.
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