Nantucket Cottage Hospital is in full support of the Town of Nantucket’s decision today to declare a State of Emergency and implement a moratorium on all construction projects.

We live on a remote island with limited medical resources. It is absolutely imperative that the community takes the COVID-19 pandemic extremely seriously. We must do everything we can to flatten the curve of potential infections and avoid a scenario in which we have a surge of cases that could overwhelm our hospital and medical providers.

As we have been emphasizing, we should be acting as if the virus is here now, even though we have not yet had a confirmed case of COVID-19 on Nantucket.

Island residents need only to watch the news and see how the pandemic has impacted communities in Italy and other European countries. That is the scenario we must do everything in our power to avoid.

So we thank the Town of Nantucket and the Select Board for taking this difficult but necessary action to declare a State of Emergency for the island and implement a moratorium on construction projects. Now it is up to all members of our community to heed the advice from the town, Nantucket Cottage Hospital, and public health officials. Stay home as much as possible, limit contact with other people through social distancing, practice appropriate and effective hygiene and cleaning of much-used surfaces. This will give us time to assess the situation on the ground and flatten the curve of potential infections in our community. Our complete set of recommendations and additional updates are posted on the hospital website. Read our complete set of recommendations here.