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ST. THOMAS — A 105-year-old St. Thomas woman has died of Covid-19, the V.I. Dept. of Health has announced, becoming the 29th known victim to die of causes related to the virulent disease in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
D.O.H. said, "After further investigating cause of death and ensuring notification of next of kin, the Virgin Islands Department of Health is saddened to confirm the territory’s twenty-ninth death related to Covid-19," said the health department in a release Saturday. D.O.H. identified the deceased as a 105-year old female on St. Thomas.
On Monday, Mr. Bryan expressed concern with what he said was a persistent Covid surge in St. Thomas. “We are very concerned with the persistence of the surge on the Island of St. Thomas,” the territory's leader said during his weekly press briefing. He also stressed the need for residents to remain vigilant. “We all have a little Covid weariness and we are tired of wearing our masks, but we must continue to persist by practicing good hygiene, social distancing and getting somebody to get vaccinated.”
Mr. Bryan added, “We should have people herding us, their friends, neighbors, loved ones, into our community vaccine centers... We need community activism in terms of getting people to the vaccine because if we get this herd immunity we can really be through this.”
To encourage people to get the vaccine, the governor announced a vaccine lottery giving away $100,000 every week for ten weeks to ten lucky winners. The lottery will begin on July 6, said Gov't House in a release following the press briefing, though Mr. Bryan had said July 7.
As of June 9, the territory had 114 active cases, 106 of which were reported in St. Thomas, 7 on St. Croix and 1 on St. John, according to D.O.H.
