Updated 5:05 pm

The Martha’s Vineyard boards of health and the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital both reported new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday.

This is the hospital’s sixth reported case this month, and 43rd since it began testing in March. In total, the hospital has tested 3,652 patients, with 3,559 negatives, and 50 pending results. There are currently no patients hospitalized with COVID-19. In April, the hospital transferred three patients off-Island who tested positive for COVID-19.

Speaking to reporters last week, hospital CEO Denise Schepici said she was not surprised by the recent uptick in cases, but stressed the importance of social distancing and wearing face coverings. The hospital went the entire month of June without a new confirmed case, but went on to report nine cases in July.

The other new case Wednesday was reported by the boards of health, and was a person who was tested off-Island. The new cases bring the total to 11 new cases this month. 

The other four August cases come from the TestMV site. On Wednesday, the testing site run by Island Health Care (IHC) reported it had tested 10,111 patients, with 19 positives, 9,274 negatives, and 818 tests pending. The TestMV site tests asymptomatic individuals, and is also open for retesting.

To help streamline test results, TestMV is using pool testing. Pool testing is when test samples are combined from several people and tested all at once to detect COVID-19. If a pooled test results in a negative, all samples can be presumed negative; if positive, all samples will need to be tested individually. This is helpful in an area such as Martha’s Vineyard, where the rate of positive tests is low.

TestMV is also reporting the average turnaround time for tests is three days.

On Tuesday, the town of Aquinnah reported it has conducted 99 tests. Of those, 89 have come back negative; 10 are pending results.

The hospital, the town of Aquinnah, boards of health, and TestMV each report their own testing numbers. Those numbers are then compiled by the boards of health. The actual number of cases can be difficult to count due to lag time and overlaps in testing each day.

Of all the Island’s 63 confirmed positive cases, 55 are no longer symptomatic, and have been released from isolation, and 25 of the confirmed cases have been linked to several cases among nine different household groups, according to the boards of health.

Of 63 of the confirmed cases, 40 are female and 23 are male. Of those, 17 of the cases are aged 50-59 years old, 13 are 20-29 years old, nine cases are 60-69 years old, eight are 30-39 years old, nine are 20 years old or younger, four are 40-49, and three are 70 years or older.

The boards of health are also reporting on probable cases. The Island’s total number of presumed positives is 20. Of those, 17 were positive antibody tests, and three were symptomatically positive.

Of the probable cases, 12 are female and eight are male. Of the 20 presumed positive cases, seven are aged 60-69, four are aged 50-59, three are aged 40-49, three are aged 20-29, two are under 20 years old, and one is over the age of 70.

Updated to include current COVID-19 numbers and new cases. — Ed.