Health officials are sharing encouraging news about COVID-19 case counts, but say it’s too early to loosen requirements for mask-wearing. “The numbers have been going down,” Chatham Health and Natural Resources Director Robert Duncanson told the health board Monday. Twelve cases were reported in the first week of September, then seven and nine cases, and just five cases in the final week of the month. “And tha...

It's “Helping Haiti Week” at Monomoy Regional High School. With more than a dozen Haitian-American or native Haitian students, the tragedies that have befallen the Caribbean country – the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July and the Aug. 14 earthquake – hit close to home. Many areas of the nation have not yet recovered from three major hurricanes that hit the island in less than 10 years. Studen...

When traveling abroad, Ruth Odile Davis has spotted women wearing the art clothing that she has created in Odile Designs for the past 35 years. And it’s no wonder, since Odile Designs, with a shop in Harwich Center, has a following of over 8,000 fans and a loyal customer base. So when, on Aug. 12, Davis sent out an email titled “Big News from Odile,” the reception was bittersweet. The big news is that “a...

With kids returning to school, cooler weather around the corner, and the Delta variant spreading rapidly, public health officials have a clear message: the best hope for the putting the pandemic behind us is for more people to get vaccinated. Last Monday, the FDA granted full approval to the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, which had been authorized only for emergency use, like the Moderna and Johnson and Johnson vacc...

Mariah Fidalgo, Orleans native and co-owner of Wild Water Collective, is a wizard with a dye pot and a sewing machine. Based out of New York City, she was at the top of her game in costume design for theater, film, and television. Enter the global pandemic: her livelihood came to a screeching halt and the place she’d called home for seven years went into lockdown. Like many at that time, Fidalgo and her hus...

After nearly 59 years of marriage, Louis and Diane Zinnanti of South Chatham still sparkle in each other’s company. “We’re very happy people,” Diane says. Sitting in their living room with a visitor, they reminisce about their family, their love of collecting and various jobs they’ve held. They fill in the details of each other’s stories and laugh a lot. Today happens to be Diane’s 81st birthday. She and Lo...

It seems that most of the news we hear about the coronavirus pandemic lately is bad news. But while there is no outright cure for COVID-19, a helpful treatment has come to Cape Cod Hospital in the form of a mobile unit offering monoclonal antibody therapy (mAb). The mobile unit is a first of its kind on Cape Cod and only one of two such units in Massachusetts. Patients receiving the outpatient treatment are th...

With concerns growing about the highly transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19, and with Provincetown fighting a localized surge of cases among mostly vaccinated people, you might see more people voluntarily wearing masks in the weeks ahead. “We are seeing a slight uptick,” Chatham Health and Natural Resources Director Robert Duncanson told the health board this week. The town saw two new cases of COVID-19 in ...

CHATHAM — “Oh, this is that store,” is a comment that Sharon Hayes overhears while gardening outside Yankee Ingenuity at 525 Main St. in Chatham. “They don’t know the name of it.” After 50 years, while some customers still don’t know the name of Yankee Ingenuity, they do know it’s where they want to go to buy that locally-made gift or craft item. This morning Hayes and her husband Jon Vaughan are outside th...

“It’s just a number,” Ella Lombard of Harwich says about one’s age. “It’s what you do with it.” Ella celebrated her 100th birthday on May 21. This remarkable woman lives at home with her pet pug and still drives herself to the grocery store and bank. She took up painting in her 70s when her niece tutored her; today, a quilt that she is sewing is spread over the dining room table. To date, she has completed 46 ...

WEST CHATHAM — A new cardiology practice opened this week in the heart of West Chatham. Cape Cod Healthcare announced recently that Dr. Elissa Thompson will be heading a new practice called the Cape Cod Healthcare Cardiovascular Center at the Oppenheim Medical Building at 1629 Main St. The opening took place last week, and the facility is expected to serve patients from around the Lower Cape. Thom...

A nonprofit agency and three local businesses won recognition and awards last week for their outstanding work and innovative business practices during the coronavirus pandemic year. The Lower Cape Outreach Council in Orleans was named the nonprofit of the year during the 28th annual SCORE Small Business Awards forum on June 10. (A Zoom meeting took the place of SCORE’s annual breakfast.) In addition, Consignin...