83 Percent of COVID-Positive Cases Are on St. Croix, Officials Say

The COVID-19 positivity rate is under three percent this week in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and 83 percent of the 161 active cases territory-wide are on St. Croix, officials said Tuesday as they underscored the importance of taking “simple precautions” – masking, social distancing, vaccinations – to keep the numbers down and the virus from spreading.

Speaking at a weekly news briefing Tuesday, Government House Communications Director Richard Motta said 134 positive COVID-19 cases have been recorded over the past week on the big island, with St. Thomas recording 25 cases and St. John two. Motta urged residents not to let the “ebb and flow” of the numbers determine how to “best protect yourself,” and added that no one island is safer than the other, no matter what the numbers show at any given time.

Of the more than 19,000 tests conducted over the past 20 months, 6,965 have been positive, including six cases this week at the Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital on St. Croix (where one patient is on a ventilator) and two more at the Schneider Regional Medical Center on St. Thomas. According to the data, 6,729 out of the total positive cases have fully recovered, while as of Tuesday 75 deaths – including one fully vaccinated person – have been recorded.

Emphasizing the need to keep the virus from spreading, territorial Epidemiologist Dr. Esther Ellis said the best shot at prevention is the COVID-19 vaccine, which a little more than 50 percent of the total population has taken.