A Month Into State Stay-at-Home Order, 16 Covid-19 Cases Here

<p>As a statewide stay-at-home order ended its first month, Gov. Charlie Baker said it was too soon to say when reopening could begin.

A month into a statewide stay-at-home order, Gov. Charlie Baker said Friday he is awaiting more data before deciding whether to extend its scheduled May 4 expiration.

"We'll have more to say about it when we get a little closer," the governor said in a televised news briefing.

Governor Baker has said he wants to see evidence of a sustained reduction in infections and hospitalizations for Covid-19 before deciding whether to ease restrictions in Massachusetts. 

Statewide figures released Friday showed nearly 5,000 new confirmed cases of Covid-19. But a note accompanying the data from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said that, due to a reporting error by the commercial laboratory Quest, that number included a backlog of test results going back to April 13.

And the governor noted in his briefing that although there were more cases confirmed Thursday than any single previous day, there were also about twice as many people tested.

Including the revised numbers, as of Sunday Massachusetts was reporting 54,938 confirmed cases of coronavirus. There were 1,590 new cases reported and 169 additional deaths, brinnging the total death toll to 2,899.

On the Vineyard, there were no new confirmed cases reported over the weekend by the hospital or the Island boards of health. The total number of confirmed cases stayed at 16.

And while one person had been hospitalized on Friday, by Saturday the hospital was reporting no current hospitalizations from Covid-19.

No further details were provided.

The Friday hospitalization was the fourth since the outbreak began. Three patients were previously transferred to Boston hospitals, two by Medflight and one (a maternity patient) by ground transport, according to information previously provided by the hospital.

As of Sunday the hospital had done 367 tests, with 16 positives, 325 negatives and 16 pending.

Among the confirmed cases on the Vineyard, seven are male and nine are female, the six Island boards of health said in their reporting. Broken down by age group, there are two cases in the 20-29 age group, two in the 30-39 group, seven in the 50-59 age group and four in the 60-69 group. There is one case in the under 20 age group.

 

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 04/26/2020 - 09:26

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islander mv

That's 16 confirmed cases on the island. Many islanders with symptoms have not been tested because there are not enough testing kits for all.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 04/26/2020 - 12:20

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Lorraine Edgartown

We do need to know more about the corona virus cases on the island so we know where these people were. With whom they had contact, etc., in times of a pandemic this is critical. Please gather information and publish it for the rest of us.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 04/27/2020 - 09:10

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Very Annoyed Vineyard Haven

It is time to start moving towards phase 1 and get the state economy moving. The people plus the free market will self govern the rest that will not comply.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 04/28/2020 - 10:46

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Lorraine Edgartown

I have read online that contact tracing was not being done in many cases. I have no way of knowing that on my own; only what I have read on line in comments sections of the paper. Perhaps someone can write a comment or an article giving us the nitty gritty....we are all in this and being asked to make great sacrifices, economically and emotionally, so we deserve proper information.

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