0
A coronavirus outbreak that started on St. Croix last week is now affecting St. Thomas and to a lesser extent St. John. According to the Dept. of Health's latest infographic issued Wednesday night, 22 new cases of the virulent disease were confirmed in the territory: 13 on St. Croix, 7 on St. Thomas and 2 in St. John.
On St. Croix, 3 of the new cases were transmitted through community transmission, 7 through close contact and the three other cases were under investigation as of Wednesday.
In St. Thomas, five of the new cases were under investigation as of Wednesday, one was transmitted through community transmission and the other close contact.
The two new cases on St. John were travel related.
Governor Albert Bryan has scheduled a coronavirus press briefing for Thursday at 1:00 p.m. So far, Mr. Bryan has resisted walking back the territory's reopening to the "Safer at Home" phase, when bars and restaurants were closed and could only serve takeout, and hotels were ordered not to accept reservations. It remains to be seen what new steps, if any, the governor will announce tomorrow.
Asked recently by the Consortium what it would take to walk back the reopening from "Open Doors" to the "Safer at Home" phase, Mr. Bryan said, "I think it would take people showing up at the hospital, showing that we have a surge for us to be identifying cases and where they are being identified coming from community spread. That would be the ticker."
Coronavirus causes postponement of Senate hearing
"Unfortunately the coronavirus has impacted our office family, as such we are left with no choice but to postpone the committee meeting," said Senator Alicia Barnes on Wednesday, who had scheduled a hearing Thursday in the Committee Government Operations, Consumer Affairs, Energy, Environment, and Planning.
