'A Little Unsettling': Nantucket Travelers React To Indoor Mask Mandate After Increase In COVID Cases
NANTUCKET (CBS) -- Travelers leaving from Hyannis to Nantucket are packing more than just umbrellas. They're bringing extra face coverings after the island's Board of Health voted to require masks indoors again.
"It's a little bit hard to follow all the different rules, but we carry [masks] with us always," said Allison Maganzini, who is visiting Nantucket.
The move comes after the island's positivity rate inches towards eight percent, with many of those cases linked to the contagious Delta variant.
"It's a little unsettling that it's coming back. So we wonder what that'll mean for us moving forward, but we'll do what we have to do to have a good time," said Maganzini.
The numbers are alarming for Nantucket health officials, who say this is one of the busiest, most crowded summers in recent years.
"There's a possibility that the spike will continue to go up. We're hoping that with the mask orders, which was effective immediately, we can arrest that and it can plateau and can start coming back down," said Roberto Santamaria of the Nantucket Department of Health.
Passengers heading to Nantucket say they're not going to let the rain or the new indoor mask mandate discourage them from going to the island because many have already been vaccinated.
"I'm fully vaccinated, so I feel pretty safe. Comfortable, ready to go," said Andrew Carr, who is visiting Nantucket.
But Maganzini says she doesn't mind the mandate, as long as it keeps her family safe.
"We're vaccinated, and we'll just be safe and wear masks when we have to."
