Secluded Chesapeake Bay island keeps eye on virus from afar

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Inez Pruitt has watched the coronavirus spread throughout the world from the relative safety of Tangier Island, a small fishing community in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay.

But the virus is now as close it can get without crossing the water, infecting people on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland.

“I feel like if we got COVID, it would be devastating,” said Pruitt, a physician assistant who operates the island's health clinic. “In my head it has a very high potential of happening. I just hope to God it doesn’t.”

Reachable only by plane or boat, the dwindling community of fewer than 500 people has reported zero cases of the coronavirus. And 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.

Far fewer people on Tangier are wearing masks than in much of the U.S. Its watermen, who anchor the economy and make up much of the workforce, still pull up crab pots and sell their bushels to buyers on the mainland.

Only one restaurant is open this time of year, so only one had to close its dining room.

The island still celebrated Palm Sunday and Easter, albeit in a long procession of golf carts and other vehicles that circled the island.

“It’s sort of like we’ve been in a safe haven,” Mayor James “Ooker” Eskridge said. “We feel more protected.”

Tangier has come to be viewed by some in America's stifled East Coast cities as the perfect escape.

“I’ve had folks call me up from all over and say, ‘Would it be OK if I flew in just to walk on the beach?’” the mayor said.

The mayor said he has discouraged such visits, but small planes have landed in recent weeks. The island also told a New York-based production company that was filming a...