CHARLOTTE AMALIE — The number of people who test positive for COVID-19 continues to rise, especially in St. Thomas, despite the lockdown imposed by Governor Albert Bryan, Jr. on Monday.
Even though Virgin Islanders have been told to stay at home, the number of positive coronavirus cases jumped to 61 cases on Thursday. Some 50 of those cases were on St. Thomas, while the other 11 were on St. Croix.
St. Thomas has seen at least 20 new cases every day this week, but the rise from Thursday to Friday is almost double the next highest tally in the last seven days. St. Croix also is experiencing new cases but to a lesser extent. The Big Island saw a high of 16 cases on Thursday and reported no new cases twice this week.
This is the second-worst increase for St. Thomas and the territory since the pandemic began. The only worse two-day period was from August 10 to 11, when the territory saw 63 cases, 57 of which were on St. Thomas.
Bryan said Monday in his weekly COVID-19 press briefing that St. Thomas is experiencing a spike in COVID-19 cases because St. Thomians live closer together than Crucians do and are a tight-knit community that likes to socialize in person.
VIDOH has five age groups: 0-17; 18-29; 30-49; 50-64 and 65 and up. Those in the 30-49 age bracket have the highest number of positive test results so far, with 350 of the territory’s 932 confirmed cases as of August 20. Those in the 18-29 bracket have had the highest incidence of positive tests, with a cumulative rate greater than 10 percent to date.
Meanwhile, readers of the Virgin Islands Free Press were harshly critical of the tactics employed by Governor Bryan to keep COVID-19 at bay since March.
“What stay at home order???” Nexus Joseph said on Facebook. “There isn’t any enforcement. Business and life continued just the same as before the order. Smh.”
“Just wait to see what happens when they start testing children… they are going to find as in the states highest numbers and no symptoms… they are the carriers,” Barbara Knight said on Facebook. “The Governor opened us up with His Substandard Protocols and allowed children under 15 to enter without a negative test! Two weeks is not going to fix this.”
“So, out of all those cases, how many are active, how many are hospitalized, and who is doing all this testing?” Vincent Bambini said from St. Thomas. “I heard incoming people are given temperature tests at airport, is this where all these numbers are coming from? Several of my friends had gotten sick and got tested with only negative results…”
