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Date: 11/16/2021
HATFIELD – The Vax Bus, a mobile clinic for COVID-19 vaccines, will visit 10 elementary schools in Western Massachusetts by Dec. 3. Sunderland hosts the bus on Nov. 19. Hatfield, currently suffering an outbreak of the virus, won’t get a date.
“It’s been a busy couple of days,” said Conor Driscoll, principal at Hatfield Elementary School. “We had over 100 students tested today, and over 20 staff. There were a few who came in positive, and some were found over the weekend through independent testing. We’re tracking 20 possible cases, over six grade levels and nine classes.”
According to Driscoll, a number of different scenarios may account for the school outbreak. Twelve to 13 staff members, who may have been exposed to someone in the community with an active case, were tested, and a trace done on their interactions. Contacts and the probable sources of infection were identified.
Existing protections in the school, which include HEPA filters in every classroom and continued obedience to the statewide mask mandate, are still in effect; but now things are a bit different. Teachers are encouraged to conduct classes outside, when possible, and take the kids outside to eat lunch. The test-and-stay protocol is continuing.
“Most of the folks who were symptomatic were identified through outside testing,” Driscoll said. “We’re going to continue to test those groups that are in close contact with someone who tested positive and identify them before they become contagious or symptomatic.”
The Board of Health scheduled an emergency meeting on the afternoon of Nov. 15 to discuss the outbreak. Brian Moriarty, representing the Selectboard at the meeting, commented that School Choice students were a source of worry.
“The problem is that we have kids in our school system who are School Choice kids who do not live in Hatfield, so if they have a positive test result they will go back to the town they live in,” Moriarty said, and possibly spread the virus.
The town’s response to the outbreak, and communication with local and state officials, was discussed, as were the general preference for double swab testing. According to those who spoke most at the meeting on the topic, Lead Nurse Jean Hobbie and Liz Kugler, a member of Hatfield’s COVID-19 response committee, the double swab testing protocols are much preferred.
Superintendent Michael Wood already contacted the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to enquire after the preferred means of testing, but had yet to hear back.
“I reached out to DESE to see if we could switch to double swab testing,” Wood said. “We’ll also talk to CIC,” a third party testing company contracted by the commonwealth to serve schools.
In-school testing, and test results, need a quicker response from the town, according to the discussion led by Robert Flaherty, chair of the Board of Health. “We have two issues,” Flaherty said. “One is the reporting, and the other is what process are we following to know about the new cases?”
The speakers reached a consensus that Jean Hobbie, lead nurse, should be the first contact for people reporting a positive test. Wood, Kruger and others discussed how best to approach state-level sources for double swab testing supplies. Officials commented on a general shortage of supplies and manpower in the schools.
Driscoll, who helped swab student nostrils for testing last week, was heartened by the strong community and state-level response.
“We’ve had administration, parents, Hatfield police, Army National Guard too,” Driscoll said. “It was an all hands on deck effort. It helped everything go smoothly ... Thank you to the broader community, and the parents. We’ll get through this if we continue to work together.”
Driscoll’s counterpart in Sunderland, Principal Ben Barshevsky, is seeing how strong, among parents, is the desire to protect their children from COVID-19.
“Our numbers were pretty high. as far as folks who have signed up so far,” Barshevsky said. “We’re expecting over 200 vaccines to be delivered. It will be a four-hour vaccine clinic, and for those families that want to have their kids get the vaccine, it’s available to them.”
According to Barshevsky, the Vax Bus had 320 slots available, in total, with about two hundred reserved by local parents. The response was so strong the action had to be moved indoors.
“Our numbers were pretty high [so] the clinic will actually take place inside,” Barshevsky said. “When we sent this out, all the slots were filled up by 8 p.m. At that point we made the decision to move the clinic indoors, which allowed us to increase the capacity.”
The Vax Bus has already paid visits to schools in Northfield and Greenfield. Seven more schools in the area will be served in November, with a final stop on Dec. 3 in Leverett. More information on visits by the Vax Bus to area schools can be found at https://frcog.org/school-vax-bus-covid-vaccine-clinics/.