VI Consortium
Coronavirus cases in the U.S. Virgin Islands continue to grow, with Dept. of Health officials on Monday reporting that younger Virgin Islanders were spreading the disease to their older, more vulnerable family members.
On Monday, 24 coronavirus cases were reported. That’s on top of some 32 positive cases reported over the weekend. And on Tuesday the Dept. of Health reported 18 new cases of the virulent disease — that’s at least 74 new cases from Friday through Tuesday.
Of the 18 new cases reported Tuesday, 14 were reported in St. Thomas, where the administration says community spread infections continue to increase. The remaining four cases were reported on St. Croix, and St. John saw no change.
The number of recovered patients continue to increase rapidly, with D.O.H. reporting 374 recovered individuals Tuesday, up from 364 Monday. Eight people have died from the virus territory-wide, and D.O.H. was tracking 99 active cases as of Monday.
So far 10,129 individuals have been tested — about 9.2 percent of the USVI population of roughly 110,000. Of that amount, 9,622 returned negative and 463 positive.
In a recent interview with the Consortium, Governor Albert Bryan indicated that he was changing his strategy in responding to the pandemic, and Virgin Islanders should expect the territory to remain open even if Covid-19 cases continue to grow.
“That shift comes as a result of remember, when we started doing this, we thought we would be done by summer and then we would be okay. The realization that it’s not going to end anytime soon — even if we get a vaccine, we still have another year at least — and coronavirus is going to be around for years. So the most important thing now is being able to manage your hospitals and being able to make sure that people stay alive,” Mr. Bryan said.