While no changes to the city of Worcester s mask or vaccine policy have been announced, health officials are recommending that residents wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status. Businesses are also beginning to adopt mask requirements for staff.
WORCESTER – The School Committee this week agreed to schedule a meeting next month with the city’s Board of Health to discuss potential COVID-related measures for the new school year.
On Friday, the School Committee office said the board agreed to a meeting during the second week of August.
So far the committee has not committed to any approach to coronavirus safety this fall, such as requiring masks or vaccinations. School officials expect the state’s education department will provide guidance for districts sometime in the next few weeks.
Earlier this week, Gov. Charlie Baker said he would not change earlier plans to lift this past school year’s pandemic guidelines, which would mean schools would be free to open this coming year with no social distancing or masking requirements. Individual districts could decide on a local basis whether to require certain measures, however; Boston Mayor Kim Janey on Friday said students in the state’s largest system would continue
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WORCESTER - City officials warned Thursday that with a new, highly transmissible variant of the COVID-19 virus spreading in the area, residents who have not yet been vaccinated are putting themselves and others at risk.
Outside Gala Foods on Main Street, officials said that while new cases of the virus and hospitalizations remain low, vaccination rates are not where they need to be for the community to reach the herd immunity it needs to stop the spread.
Dr. Matilde Castiel, the city s commissioner of health and human services, said if residents don t get vaccinated, the virus will smolder for years in neighborhoods like Main South and communities of color that were disproportionately impacted by the virus, yet have lagged behind in vaccinations.
WORCESTER City health officials say Johnson & Johnson vaccines could come back to Worcester s mobile and equity clinics after second doses of Moderna and Pfizer are handled at the clinics.
On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration s decided to lift the 11-day pause on use of the vaccine following cases of rare and severe blood clotting. The agencies found 15 cases of blood clotting, all involving women between the ages of 18 and 59, with the most cases coming from women in their 30s.
Dr. Michael P. Hirsh, Worcester s medical director, said that the city s mobile clinics, including equity clinics targeting people disproportionately affected by the virus, will most likely return to using Johnson & Johnson vaccines in possibly a little over a week after administering second doses of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.