On March 31, Fallon Ambulance conducted a mobile clinic on behalf of the state Department of Public Health that tested about 300 people for COVID-19.
Sandwich dropped into the state’s lower risk “yellow” zone April 15, but when Wednesday’s second testing clinic was scheduled the town s numbers were high,” Health Agent David Mason said.
The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education directed elementary schools to return students to in-person class five days a week by April 5, with middle school students directed to be back in their buildings full time by April 28.
But Gould said Sandwich school officials were able to get an extension for students in grades 7-8, delaying their full-time, in-person return until May 10.
And in Sandwich, a schoolteacher developed COVID-19 after receiving one shot, according to town officials.
The Cape Cod Healthcare employees had mild symptoms or were asymptomatic, said Dr. Kevin Mulroy, senior vice president and chief quality officer of Cape Cod Healthcare.
“None of them have been seriously ill,” he said during an interview last week.
Health officials said vaccine “breakthroughs” are to be expected, since none of the COVID-19 vaccines are 100% effective.
“That likelihood exists. We’ve known it all along,” said Vaira Harik, interim director of the Barnstable County Department of Human Services.
While the number of post-vaccination COVID-19 infections that have been detected so far are exceedingly small, their existence points to the need to maintain safety protocols and community mitigation efforts, Harik said during a Thursday morning briefing by the Cape Cod COVID-19 Response Task Force.
The state s weekly municipal COVID-19 report showed a lower case count in the past two-week span, with the majority of towns moving out of the state’s red zone.
However, higher virus positivity rates have been seen on the Islands, with Nantucket and three towns on Martha’s Vineyard being reported in the red zone. The town of Edgartown had the highest positivity rate at 10.13%, with 57 newly reported cases over the past two weeks.
On the Cape, the town of Yarmouth has the highest positive rate of 7.11%, with 118 new cases, and remained in the red zone. The town of Barnstable, which has had the highest number of new cases over the past few weeks, has been downgraded from the red to yellow zone, with 145 new cases and a positivity rate of 4.55%.