CHARLOTTE AMALIE — As coronavirus cases and hospitalizations rise across the country, some areas with low vaccination rates have been hit hard, like Louisiana, Florida and Mississippi.
The same is true for the U.S. Virgin Islands, where only about a third of residents are vaccinated. In recent days, the islands have seen their highest numbers of confirmed cases and hospitalizations since the start of the pandemic.
The islands, a popular tourist destination with a year-round population of about 106,000, are now in the top 20 U.S. states and territories for cases per capita, according to a New York Times database.
Active cases have been ticking up for weeks, rising from around 60 at the beginning of July to a high of 401 on Friday, according to data from the islands’ Department of Health. Before this summer’s surge, the highest number of active cases was 295, reported nearly a year ago. Only 37 percent of the population was fully vaccinated as of Saturday, trailing every state but Mississippi and Alabama, according to federal data.
Richard Motta, spokesman for Governor Albert Bryan said in a telephone interview early that there were 26 COVID hospitalizations, more than at any time since the pandemic response on the islands began in March 2020.
Motta attributed the lagging vaccination rate to misinformation, a segment of the islands’ population that is deeply suspicious of vaccines and the fact that the shots are not yet fully approved but are being administered under emergency use authorizations.
The islands have set up a lottery to incentivize vaccinations, Motta said, and shots or regular testing are required for the roughly 6,000 government employees, the staff members at the territory’s hospitals. Vaccines are mandatory for most on-campus students and staff at the University of the Virgin Islands, as well.
The islands made vaccines available to all adults when much of the country still limited them to high-risk groups, leading some Americans to visit in order to be inoculated.
All deaths and hospitalizations recorded in the islands involve unvaccinated people, Mr. Motta said, and the few documented breakthrough infections were not serious — more evidence that vaccines offer high protection from the worst outcomes.
The islands have stricter precautions than much of the mainland, including an indoor mask mandate, social distancing rules and a curfew on beaches and businesses.
Schools, which just reopened, are fully remote, and will stay that way at least until September, Motta said.
The islands normally draw as many as 2,000 visitors a day, Motta said, but when cases were climbing in the summer of 2020, the islands banned new hotel reservations. Tourism has since roared back; some airlines introduced new flights there this spring.
Regardless of vaccination status, visitors ages 5 and older have to post proof on an online travel portal of a negative coronavirus test taken no more than five days before arrival. Mr. Motta said that one dozen to two dozen people had falsified tests, and that some were arrested.
The British Virgin Islands, a territory that is only a few miles away from the U.S. Virgin Islands by ferry, virtually shut down its waterways to inbound international travelers until April. The territory also saw a surge in cases that has only recently begun to subside.
Each island territories escaped Tropical Storm Grace largely unscathed, but the hurricane season runs through November. A natural disaster could greatly complicate their pandemic prospects, a point made last week by President Biden, who said that getting vaccinated was a vital part of preparing for hurricane season.
“If you wind up having to evacuate, if you wind up having to stay in a shelter,” Biden said, “you don’t want to add COVID-19 to the list of dangers that you’re going to be confronting.”