Secluded Chesapeake Bay island keeps eye on virus from afar
FILE - This Aug. 2, 2011 file photo shows a stone seawall, lower right, on the west side of Tangier Island, Va., which protects the island's airstrip. The fishing community in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay has reported zero cases of the coronavirus. But the virus would be devastating if it were to reach the island, which has a large elderly population and no full-time doctor. (Bob Brown/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Accessible only by plane or boat, Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay has reported zero cases of the coronavirus.
But the virus is now as close it can get without crossing the water.
Though its one school and two churches have shuttered, life has continued at a level of normalcy that much of the nation lost weeks ago.
The small fishing community’s mayor says its seclusion has made it a safe haven.
But the community’s protective isolation could also be its undoing if the coronavirus comes ashore.
Disease can spread fast in the close-knit community, which hasn’t had a full-time doctor in half a century.
