Patient being tested at the Cape Cod Healthcare drive-thru facility at Cape Cod Community College
BARNSTABLE – Barnstable County Health officials provided an update Monday on the progress of the drive-through coronavirus testing that is being conducted at the Cape Cod Community College.
Ten out of fifteen Cape Cod towns have been confirmed to have at least one case of COVID-19, with 30 cases in Barnstable County.
In the entire state, 777 people have tested positive out of more than 8,900 tested individuals.
Sean O’Brien, Department Director for the Barnstable County Department of Health and Environment, said that the number of cases is expected to increase as testing continues.
When it comes to closing facilities, parks, or beaches during the pandemic, O’Brien said it was up to the individual town to determine whether they are open, however he warned that people need to be mindful to avoid crowds wherever possible.
“People are really hitting the parks in New York City and the Cherry Blossom Festival down in Washington D.C., and quite honestly these are things we can’t have,” he said.
“We need to make sure that people realize, even though the governor has not made a shelter-in-place situation for the other 13 towns on Cape, we really need to make sure that people maintain social distancing and as best they can try to stay away from these locations.”
“What I saw in New York was absolutely unacceptable.”
O’Brien said that now that the testing has begun in earnest, a better picture of the outbreak’s spread will become clear.
“I think over the next 2-3 weeks we’re going to get a lot of data that will allow us to see where this bell curve is going to go, so to speak,” said O’Brien.
“Last was our first week, it took us a little while to get everything set up with testing, it took a bit of time to get the private labs on there. Now that we got pretty good testing and some sites up and some people conducting that testing, I think this week and over the next few, we’re going to start to see where we’re going to be at in Barnstable County, in the Commonwealth, and in the country.”
O’Brien also warned that the peak of the outbreak is still ahead, with cases expected to rise in the coming weeks.
“We’re just at the start of this folks. And just from my experience public health-wise, just thinking about this and training we’ve done over the years, this is the start. We’re not well into it yet,” said O’Brien.
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