HYANNIS, Mass. — It is the lead story in the local Sunday paper, and the surging COVID-19 situation on Cape Cod certainly has the state’s attention. For a second Sunday in a row, the Department of Public Health set up a testing site at the Melody Tent.
Under a gray, puffy sky on the verge of bursting with rain, a line of vehicles kept workers busy but hardly overwhelmed. Last week, about 225 were tested, far below capacity.
“We like the additional testing site here,” said Yarmouth Health Director Bruce Murphy. “The surveillance is good. But I go back to what I’ve been saying […] that I believe that what we need is emergency vaccination sites down here with a redistribution of the vaccine from the mega-sites.”
He noted that appointments quickly book up at the Cape’s mass vaccination site at the community college. Murphy said that has left many shut-ins in Yarmouth, 65 and older, yet to get any vaccine. The same may be true, he thinks, for new nursing home residents.
This is especially worrisome, he said, given the sudden, rapid spread of COVID-19 on the Cape. Last week, five more towns – Mashpee, Brewster, Sandwich, Harwich and Dennis – joined Barnstable and Yarmouth as high-risk ‘red’ communities.
>>>MORE: COVID-19 cases continue to surge, spread on Cape Cod
Barnstable and Yarmouth now have the highest positive-test rates for COVID-19 in the state.
Murphy worries that, aside from COVID-19 fatigue and carelessness, something else is behind the surge: one or more virus variants. He is particularly concerned with P1, first identified late last year in Manaus, Brazil, a city of about two million people. P1 is known for its contagiousness; it may be more than twice as contagious as ‘Wuhan Covid,’ as well as its ability to reinfect those who have recovered from a previous COVID-19 infection.
Late last week, state health officials reported to the CDC an additional 15 cases of P-1 COVID-19 in Massachusetts statewide. Only Florida – 42 cases – and Illinois – 19 cases – have had more cases of P1.
But Murphy thinks there could be more P1 cases than that in Barnstable County alone. He points to the speed of the outbreaks on the Cape, which took some communities from the brink of COVID-19 recovery to, in the case of Yarmouth, a positive COVID-19 test rate now of nearly 8%.
“We were heading down,” Murphy said. “And I said, ‘this is great. We’re going down, probably to the green.’ Then all of a sudden it turned around like that. And boom, it went straight up.”
And there’s no end in sight.
“I’m seeing an uptick in cases,” Murphy said. “Which I’ve said is the third wave we’re seeing down here.”
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