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Date: 10/28/2020
SOUTHWICK – During the Oct. 20 meeting, the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School Committee met with Southwick’s Public Health Director and Public Nurse Kate Johnson to discuss the district and town’s approach to handling the COVID-19 pandemic.
To start the conversation, Johnson gave a presentation discussing the different ways the town was fighting the virus and she said they are doing everything they can to prevent the spread.
“That’s what is most important to me, that we’re implementing the protocols and the guidance that we know are the best for what we have at our hands,” she said.
Superintendent Jennifer Willard said as soon as the new numbers come out, she is contacting Johnson immediately.
“Kate is in constant contact with me as superintendent. As soon as Kate has a positive, she is in contact with me and we’re already starting to look if there is any connection to school. We are working seven days a week and making sure we are staying on top of the COVID pandemic,” she said.
While she had not seen positive cases directly through sports, Johnson said the number of athletes who have been in contact with positive cases have been high.
“I can tell you the contacts have increased because of sports, specifically relating to sports teams. Not positive cases of COVID through sports but contacts of positive cases through sports,” she said.
One of the current sources of contact Johnson said she and the state are looking into is ice hockey.
“On a hockey rink, there is no six feet apart. And I know there have been conversations across the state where those players were not wearing masks out on the ice, several contacts I am working with were exposed on the ice hockey rink,” she said.
With hockey in particular, Johnson said that deviations from the guidelines is the biggest way the virus can spread.
“It’s understanding the protocol and understanding why. When there’s some deviation, there is going to be an increased risk for transmission. If they are coughing on each other, if they are breathing heavy, and dropping those droplets in the air, it takes one positive to expose multiple others,” she said.
Johnson added that symptoms for COVID cases have weakened within the Southwick community, but cautioned residents to continue to wear masks and maintain current guidelines.
“Now the symptoms are more like runny nose, congestion, one person had an earache. The acuity of symptoms has weakened at least within out population of people,” she said.
One of the ways Johnson said the town has been able to limit the spread of the virus is by working together as a community.
“The more we can talk, share, plan, and strategize, I think we’re doing the best thing for our community and the people that live here. So, I appreciate that collaboration very much,” she said.
After Johnson’s presentation, Willard gave an update to the district’s 2020-2021 district plan and said one of the updates was a delay to its one to one student to device initiative.
“We had a gradual implementation of one to one, but due to the COVID pandemic it was a rapid implementation of our one to one initiative. I actually had to change this mid-month because the 835 computers we thought would be delivered in November are now giving us a December date,” she said.
With the delay, she said the initiative should be fully implemented by January, pending any other delays.
The Southwick School Committee next meets on Nov. 2.