https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...-pour-marthas-vineyard-rich-flee-coronavirus/
Residents of the elite US holiday hideaways Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket have complained they are facing a wave of wealthy coronavirus refugees arriving in private jets.
Amid the influx there were fears of tiny local hospitals being overwhelmed by an outbreak, and shortages in local shops where food has to be delivered by ferry.
The two islands off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, are summer colonies where rich Americans from New York and elsewhere have second homes.
Barack Obama bought a house on Martha's Vineyard last year and Bill Clinton has regularly holidayed there. In 1999 John F. Kennedy Jr died in a small plane crash off the island's coast.
Brian Packish, a local councillor, said private jets had been "pouring in" to the small airport on Martha's Vineyard in recent days.
Gordon Healy, an assistant manager at the local animal shelter, told the Boston Globe: "If you don’t need to be here, if you don’t have a reason to be here, it doesn’t make sense for you to be here. I don’t speak for everyone on the island, but I think it’s a pretty common belief."
John Christensen, a local official, added: "I’ve never seen grocery carts so full."
Officials warned that the island's population was mostly elderly, and vulnerable to the virus.
Those on Nantucket asked the Massachusetts emergency management agency to reduce the number of people allowed to travel there.
The local hospital said it only had 14 beds and no intensive care unit, meaning victims would have to be airlifted to Boston if there was an outbreak.
However, wealthy people who have second homes on the islands rejected suggestions they should stay on the mainland, and said they would practice proper social distancing.
One former US ambassador heading to Nantucket, told the Boston Globe: "A lot of people are retreating, whether they’re going to the Cape or New Hampshire or some more isolated place that’s off the beaten path.
"It’s hard to know to do the right thing in these times, but this feels like the right thing."
Further north in Maine, the island of North Haven 12 miles off the coast, voted to ban visitors and seasonal residents, who spend the winter in warmer states like Florida.
The ruling, which has since been watered down, was intended to put a brake on the traditional summer invasion which adds around 2,000 to the year-round population of 355.
Gordon Bubar, 74, who runs the local grocery, said: "We don’t have a hospital. You have to get there by boat. It is a bad situation and it is a very bad disease."
The island of Nantucket near Martha's Vineyard Credit: Getty
Residents of the elite US holiday hideaways Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket have complained they are facing a wave of wealthy coronavirus refugees arriving in private jets.
Amid the influx there were fears of tiny local hospitals being overwhelmed by an outbreak, and shortages in local shops where food has to be delivered by ferry.
The two islands off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, are summer colonies where rich Americans from New York and elsewhere have second homes.
Barack Obama bought a house on Martha's Vineyard last year and Bill Clinton has regularly holidayed there. In 1999 John F. Kennedy Jr died in a small plane crash off the island's coast.
Brian Packish, a local councillor, said private jets had been "pouring in" to the small airport on Martha's Vineyard in recent days.
Gordon Healy, an assistant manager at the local animal shelter, told the Boston Globe: "If you don’t need to be here, if you don’t have a reason to be here, it doesn’t make sense for you to be here. I don’t speak for everyone on the island, but I think it’s a pretty common belief."
John Christensen, a local official, added: "I’ve never seen grocery carts so full."
Officials warned that the island's population was mostly elderly, and vulnerable to the virus.
Those on Nantucket asked the Massachusetts emergency management agency to reduce the number of people allowed to travel there.
The local hospital said it only had 14 beds and no intensive care unit, meaning victims would have to be airlifted to Boston if there was an outbreak.
However, wealthy people who have second homes on the islands rejected suggestions they should stay on the mainland, and said they would practice proper social distancing.
One former US ambassador heading to Nantucket, told the Boston Globe: "A lot of people are retreating, whether they’re going to the Cape or New Hampshire or some more isolated place that’s off the beaten path.
"It’s hard to know to do the right thing in these times, but this feels like the right thing."
Further north in Maine, the island of North Haven 12 miles off the coast, voted to ban visitors and seasonal residents, who spend the winter in warmer states like Florida.
The ruling, which has since been watered down, was intended to put a brake on the traditional summer invasion which adds around 2,000 to the year-round population of 355.
Gordon Bubar, 74, who runs the local grocery, said: "We don’t have a hospital. You have to get there by boat. It is a bad situation and it is a very bad disease."
The island of Nantucket near Martha's Vineyard Credit: Getty
