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Date: 2/2/2022
SOUTH HADLEY – The South Hadley Board of Health met on Jan. 25 to discuss COVID-19 updates, new school testing protocols and the possibility of rescinding the current mask mandate.
Sharon Hart, director of public health, reported that there had been 193 active cases in the past week, and for confirmed cases, there were 152. After speaking with the Council on Aging director, they identified 25 people who were 60 and older out of 152 confirmed cases. There were 13 confirmed cases for children under 5 and there was one additional death.
Addressing that the case numbers were dropping off statewide, Hart said the data shows that there was a drop from 244 cases two weeks prior to 224 in the week leading up to the meeting. She said that compared to last year, it’s the same downward curve, and there was a significant decrease by the beginning of February 2021.
However, she did announce that they had a Department of Health meeting and are “moving away” from contract tracing and are transitioning to a new COVID-19 testing option for the schools.
Specifically, the district could discontinue its test-and-stay and contact tracing programs in order to take advantage of the state’s new at-home testing program, which she said means “we’re not going to get the numbers that we used to get.” On Jan. 26, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jahmal Mosley announced in a letter to the community that the district’s application to participate in the program had been approved by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Through the new program, the state provides districts with rapid tests acquired as part of a contract with iHealth for 26 million units secured by the Baker-Polito administration.
Students in families that opt in to the at-home testing would receive a package of two test kits every week and would administer one once a week at their school’s direction. Positive tests should be reported by the families to their schools and the district will continue reporting positive cases to the state. Schools who take part in this program would be required to participate in symptomatic and/or pooled testing as well.
As of press time, Mosley expected tests to be distributed to students during the week of Jan. 31. The district also hosted an information session on the new policy on Jan. 26.
Hart elaborated during the Board of Health meeting that the state Department of Public Health’s message regarding COVID-19 is that they will have to decide what surveillance looks like moving forward. “For many high-volume diseases like influenza, surveillance systems don’t try to capture every case. Rather we focus on severe outcomes, prevention measures and protecting vulnerable populations. It is likely that surveillance will stop trying to capture every case of COVID but establish systems that help us monitor trends, the emergence of new variants, and identification of cases in vulnerable settings.”
Another point to be considered is that when schools do move to the at-home antigen testing. The concern raised was once schools are no longer using the PCR testing, PCR lab results that previously were sent to the state and then to boards of health won’t be available for them to follow up on.
Christina McKiernan, MD, then asked if the board would still have the data on case numbers and if contract tracing would continue. “Is that my understanding that you will still know if there are cases amongst the residents, or you won’t even know that?” she asked.
Hart responded that once they move to antigen testing and getting away from the PCR tests she wasn’t sure what that would look like yet and commented, “I know cities and towns who are just giving up on it completely, not even following through on them, and it’s just hard...so, I’m not sure what the state’s next step is and if we’re even going to have to do any contact tracing.”
The board then discussed the current mask mandate related to COVID-19 metrics and when they might consider what point the mask may be eligible to be rescinded. McKiernan referenced an article from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that defines five categories to consider for early detection of increases and the metrics and, based on these, when to increase prevention strategies for the increasing levels of community transmission.
She reported as of Jan. 21, South Hadley was at 217 cases per 100,000 residents, and according to the CDC greater than 100 is in the highest risk category and, therefore, South Hadley still falls in the high-risk category. The next area they look at is percent positivity, and South Hadley was at 12.28 percent, and according to the CDC, the high-risk category is at 10 percent positivity. On the positive side, she said, this rate is rapidly decreasing by almost 50 percent.
The next metric they considered is hospital capacity, and she said, “Our numbers are just starting to hit that plateau. Following this comes the amount of ICU and intubated patients which the data shows that the amount of sickest patients is still increasing. She noted her most area of concern was across the state that hospital beds are almost filled to capacity even though positivity rates are peaking and going down. She said,“I think we do need to still be worried about what burden of additional cases would be doing.”
Another consideration the board looked at was the vaccination rate, and McKiernan said, “Unfortunately Hampshire County is one of the lower counties at just a 69 percent rate.”
The fifth category was the detection of COVID-19 in water samples and McKiernan said these had dropped and thought it was a “good sign,” but however; she said, “overall looking at all the data and numbers, South Hadley still falls in the high-risk category therefore she concluded, “I don’t feel like we’re really at a place that we can rescind the mask mandate just yet. I think our rates of transmission are still a little bit too high, and we don’t want to go backwards just yet.”
At that, she opened it up to the board for discussion, and based on all the data, they decided to continue the mask mandate and reevaluate it at the next meeting with hopes that by then, the metrics are “markedly different, and the mandate could then be discontinued.”
Hart then moved on to announce that last month, she applied for a public health excellence grant and was approved for $300,000 for two nursing staff, two nurses and a coordinator to share with Holyoke, Chicopee and South Hadley. She said she already had a meeting with the other two towns’ directors and feels that it’s a good collaboration. At this point, they are coming up with ideas and the possibility of focusing on school-based programs such as looking at obesity and substance abuse. She added that she’s looking forward to it and is “so excited” because it is the largest grant she’s ever received.
The discussion then turned to the air quality at the high school because the Board of Health requested an additional assessment and what was being done for the mold remediation. Ravenhurst agreed with Board member Jessica Collins that they should continue to be informed about any progress to see if they could provide helpful input as the school makes decisions about the maintenance of the building. However, she added, “the nitty-gritty decisions, what will be funded versus not is not something that we need to wait on; we could just be updated about what’s going on.”
Vice-Chair Tony Judge thought evaluating any plan would be central to what the Board of Health should be concerned with. “I think we are entitled to imagine anyone would object or should object, the fact that we want to participate in what they’re finding and what they’re supposed to do - and I would say if we find it to be insufficient, that we should say so. I mean, I think we have rights for our fairly solemn obligation and this one, this is our town, our citizens, our high school students, and so I think we should be at the table on this one.”
He also added that he felt the Board should be updated, and Ravenhurst said she would move forward with reaching out for updates and will continue to send them to the Board as soon as she receives them, and they plan to keep this on the agenda for next month.
Managing Editor Chris Maza contributed to this report.