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It was not immediately clear how many Maplewood residents and staff who recently tested positive for COVID had previously been vaccinated. Several calls to the nursing home by a Globe reporter were not returned.
“Residents who tested positive were offered treatments with monoclonal antibodies,” according to DPH. “All positive employees are stable. “
Maplewood at Mayflower Place, located at 579 Buck Island Road in West Yarmouth, is a “continuing care retirement community,” according to its website. The establishment offers several types of services, including independent living, assisted living and a nursing and rehabilitation center.
In response to the increase in new cases in the region, the Department of Public Health on Monday released guidelines to control the spread of COVID-19 in long-term care facilities in Barnstable County. The guidelines include continuing weekly testing for all unvaccinated staff and making a mask mandatory for all visitors, regardless of their immunization status.
Experts warn of a slight increase in cases due to the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant, which now accounts for around 83% of all COVID-19 cases in the country.
The increase in cases in Provincetown was declared a “cluster” by the Department of Public Health, and officials found that “exposure opportunities were widespread in Provincetown, and not focused on a single activity or location.” said Vaira Harik, deputy Barnstable County director of the social services department.
The “vast majority” of the 132 cases confirmed in Provincetown between July 1 and July 16 were in people who had been vaccinated, according to chief executive Alex Morse.
Provincetown reported an average daily incident rate of 13.8 cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 population, according to DPH data, for the two-week period June 27 to July 10. This was significantly higher than the state average of just 1.4 cases per 100,000 population. residents for this period.
Elsewhere on the Cape, Yarmouth reported an average of 2.7 cases per 100,000 people during that two-week period, and Harwich, 4.5 cases per 100,000 people. Weekly data for cities and towns is released each Thursday by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
“We just finished what are probably two of our busiest weeks of the whole summer, and so when you have a real density of people in a fairly tight space, what we saw over the weekend of July 4, it’s easier for disease infections to spread, ”said State Senator Julian Cyr, who is the public information officer for the Cape Cod COVID-19 response task force.
“Testing is our best tool to stop the rise in cases, and vaccination remains our best defense in preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19,” he said.
Linda Zuern, a former Bourne selectman, died of serious complications from COVID-19 on Friday, the Cape Cod Times reported. Zuern, 70, a staunch conservative, has not been vaccinated, according to a close friend and one of his neighbors, the newspaper said.
In Massachusetts, cases are slowly increasing. The seven-day average of cases in the state rose to 161 last week after hitting a low of 52 cases on June 28.
Still, the number of confirmed cases of the virus among those vaccinated remains low in Massachusetts. Data released last week by the Department of Public Health revealed that 0.1% of people vaccinated in the state have contracted the virus. The DPH on Saturday reported 4,450 “revolutionary” cases of the virus among 4,195,844 people vaccinated.
Massachusetts still has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country: 83.4% of adults in the state received at least one dose of the vaccine on Monday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nursing homes also have a low number of cases in Massachusetts. According to the DPH spokesperson, only 6 facilities reported new cases last week, each adding only 1 or 2 cases. Eighty-eight percent of nursing home residents and 73 percent of staff were fully immunized as of June 12, according to DPH.
Amanda Kaufman of Globe staff contributed to this article.
Alexandra Chaidez can be reached at [email protected].
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