Barnstable County Officials Remind Public to Stay Safe Amid Slow Reopening

Barnstable County Department of Health and Environment Director, Sean O’Brien

HYANNIS – Barnstable County health officials are urging the public to maintain their personal health responsibilities in order to ensure that state can move to phase two of their reopening plans.

“I think we just have to reinforce how important it is for people to wear masks if they’re not going to socially distance and reinforce that or just say ‘please it’s important to do so,’” said Barnstable County Department of Health and Environment Director Sean O’Brien.  

“It’s so important as we go through all of this and watching what’s happened in some of the other states we cannot let our guard down and we have to just follow through in protecting ourselves by socially distancing, wearing our masks, washing our hands, and cleaning our surfaces.”

Health officials are saying that they are continuing to monitor the numbers but are encouraged by seeing the downward trend in the number of cases in the area.

O’Brien added that he understands that there could be a spike in cases as more people come to Cape Cod for the summer months but emphasized that officials will continue to monitor the data, and asked that everyone practice the preventive measures.  

“We’re going to be constantly monitoring the numbers, we’re going to monitor them locally for Cape Cod, and we are going to monitor them regionally throughout the state,” said O’Brien.  

County health officials also said hospitalization rates state wide are decreasing, especially when compared to earlier this month.

“That is really dropping,” said O’Brien.  

“At the beginning of May we were at roughly 3,700 folks still in the hospital and here we are at the end of the month and that number is down to roughly 2,100 so we are starting to see those numbers slow down quite a bit.”

The drive-thru testing facility at Cape Cod Community College continues to stay active.

Approximately 3,500 cars have come through the test-site since its opening in March.

The number of cars to come through the facility does not exactly represent the number of people who have been tested.

O’Brien said that the testing on Cape Cod has seen a small increase and that the more people tested, the better.

He noted that county health officials are discussing possible changes to criteria for testing with Cape Cod Healthcare.