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The V.I. Dept. of Health reported 24 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Monday, with St. Croix accounting for 17 of the new cases, and St. Thomas 7.
On St. Croix, 11 of the new cases were transmitted through close contact, 3 through community spread, 1 was travel-related, and 2 were under investigation. Four of the 7 cases on St. Thomas were transmitted through community spread, while 3 were close contact.
No new cases were reported on St. John.
There were 91 active cases as of Monday: 46 on St. Croix, 43 on St. Thomas and 2 on St. John.
During an interview with the Consortium Monday morning, Governor Albert Bryan spoke of a shift in his strategy relative to how his administration would combat the virus. Previously, Mr. Bryan had said he would move to the "Safer at Home" phase of reopening, which calls for the curtailing of hotel reservations, among other restrictions, if cases continued to rise — especially if St. Thomas cases grew. But with St. Thomas seeing steady new cases, Mr. Bryan now says the plan is being able to manage new cases.
"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," the governor said.
