Young people have had the most COVID cases in Massachusetts in the last 2 weeks; doctors say spread fueled by gatherings outside of school
Updated Mar 08, 2021;
In the last two weeks, the majority of COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts have been diagnosed in people ages 0-19, a trend that health officials say is not related to schooling and is more likely to be caused by the activities of teenagers.
Mask usage is an important factor for this metric and teenagers may not always wear a mask, said Richard Ellison, an epidemiologist at UMass Memorial Medical Center.
“This may be more a question of what’s actually happening in terms of social distancing and other kinds of activities that could expose someone [to the virus],” Ellison.
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It’s been almost a year since Massachusetts public schools closed their doors to prevent community spread of COVID-19. Recently, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley announced plans to “take remote and hybrid learning models off the table” by April. It’s about time.
For months, we have known that the risks of harm to students from school closures far outweigh the risks from COVID-19. It was clear last summer not only that students are at low risk from COVID-19, but that transmission from students to staff is rare, particularly when risk mitigation protocols are in place. And yet, today, more than 20% of Massachusetts school districts serving approximately 400,000 students, remain fully remote. Many others receive more than half of their instruction online.
The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted Friday to approve a proposal that will give Commissioner Jeffrey Riley the power to force districts to reopen their schools full-time. The board voted 8-3 to approve the plan that would put elementary school children back in in-person classes five days a week starting April 5. Sign up for our Newsletters Others would be gradually brought back. Districts can apply for waivers and parents can.
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