Vineyard COVID Clusters Spark Worry As Tourists Flock To Island

MARTHA'S VINEYARD, MA — Rising coronavirus cases on Martha's Vineyard have some businesses taking extra precautions ahead of a busy stretch of late-summer festivals.

Six new cases of COVID-19 were tallied on Martha's Vineyard Sunday, and seven new cases were reported by boards of health spokesperson Maura Valley Monday, totaling 13 new cases so far this week - and it's only Tuesday.

As of Monday, an average of 6.3 cases a day have been reported in Dukes County, a 439% increase from the average two weeks ago.

Yet festivals and concerts continue on. Badfish, A Tribute to Sublime will still be performing their 20 Year Anniversary Tour Wednesday in Oak Bluffs.

The Annual Grand Illumination Night is still scheduled for August 18 after being canceled last year.

However, the Oak Bluffs Fireworks and Band Concert was supposed to take place on August 20 but was canceled due to rising case numbers.

New COVID-19 cases doubled on the island to 48 last week, mixing in three new COVID clusters that could be traced back to Edgartown restaurants, the boards of health confirm.

One of the restaurants, Alchemy, has temporarily closed its doors out of an abundance of caution. The restaurant took to Instagram, posting a staff member had tested positive for the virus, and they would be reopening soon.

The Martha's Vineyard Times, however, reported that 14 cases were confirmed from the staff at Alchemy.

Restaurants across the island feared a large number of party guests might help spike the number of cases, and though Valley said there's no mask mandate for Martha's Vineyard yet, some restaurants have required staff to mask up.

Tom, a manager from Atlantic Restaurant in Edgartown told Patch he and his employees are being extra cautious around the situation and went back to wearing masks at work last Wednesday.

Neighboring island Nantucket has voted to issue a mask mandate for all indoor activities following an emergency meeting last Thursday.

This coming Thursday, the Board of Health has scheduled an emergency meeting to discuss the possibility of setting island-wide capacity limitations on Nantucket due to the continued spread of COVID-19. The meeting can be streamed via Youtube here.

Some establishments across both islands are upping their COVID protocols. On Tuesday, Patch reached out to The Loft, a popular Oak Bluffs nightclub that hosts the MV concert series, and a manager said they are requiring proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test to enter the nightclub.

Red, a manager at the Loft and Chowder House, said that 95% of their staff is vaccinated and they will hold off on masking up until the governor tells them otherwise.

Starting Tuesday, Cisco Brewers on Nantucket will start requiring proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test to enter the premises.

Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket stand at "high" risk of community transmission, alongside Suffolk county, Hampden county, Bristol county, and Berkshire county across Massachusetts.

The Vineyard Gazette reported Monday that one person is currently being hospitalized for the virus on the island.

The hospital had not reported a new Covid-19 hospitalization since the spring.

Former President Barrack Obama hosted a 60th birthday party for himself and a 'scaled back' amount of guests, in contrast to the original 700 guests he had planned to invite before the recent delta variant outbreak.

Of the 48 new cases, 35 were symptomatic, two had no symptoms, and 11 are unknown.