HYANNIS – As Cape Cod enters the booking window for peak season vacations, tourism officials are keeping a close eye on the coronavirus.
“We are closing monitoring bulletins from the Center for Disease Control, World Health Organization, and of course our own Massachusetts Department of Public Health. They have very good websites that are updated daily and we are keeping a close eye on that,” said Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce CEO Wendy Northcross.
“I have not heard any impacts locally to date, we are very lucky that the risk level is rated low in Massachusetts. There has been only one case in the state and that was from a young man who returned to Boston from China and sought medical attention and he is recovering.”
On Monday night, state health officials announced a second case of the virus in Massachusetts.
The virus, which became an international news story after an outbreak in China this past December, has currently infected over 90,000 people and killed over 3,000.
So far the United States has seen 96 confirmed cases across 13 states with 6 of those cases resulting in deaths.
The virus has also caused countries around the world to implement travel restrictions, quarantines, and curfews leading the World Health Organization to declare the outbreak a global health emergency.
The Trump Administration has expanded travel restrictions from Iran and put out travel advisories for certain regions of South Korean and Italy in response to the virus.
The Administration also imposed new protocols for travelers entering the United States which will include new screening procedures for people traveling from “high-risk countries.”
While the virus is causing concerns worldwide, Northcross said the chamber has not yet seen any impacts locally.
“We are monitoring it, we don’t see any current issues but of course it has the potential to impact travel,” said Northcross.
“Fortunately for Cape Cod, most of our visitors come here from the Metro-Boston area in the offseason and in the high season people come here from the New England, New York, and Pennsylvania regions and people are driving here in their car, they’re not flying, so that is good news for Cape Cod.”
She also said that to help avoid and mitigate the spread of the virus, Cape Coders should practice personal hygiene, such as washing their hands, and continually check the WHO and CDC websites for updates on the current status of the virus.
Northcross said that businesses should also be monitoring the situation especially if locals are going to be doing business with companies overseas.
The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce will continue to monitor the virus moving forward and will provide as much relevant information as possible to the public, according to Northcross.
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