Norwood School COVID-19 Rates Down Dramatically Last Week

NORWOOD, MA - The Norwood Public Schools have seen a steep decline in student and staff COVID-19 cases over the previous week reported as the omicron variant of COVID-19 appears to be waning in strength.

Because of the declines seen in Norwood and throughout Massachusetts, the state's Department of Public Health (DPH) and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) have jointly decided to discontinue the Test and Stay program, instead preferring to distribute at-home tests to all students and staff who opt into this program.

Superintendent David Thomson noted at the most recent School Committee meeting on Wednesday, Jan.26 that cases had fallen to 37 students and seven staff members for the week, whereas the prior week reported 115 students and 23 staff members.

"We do seem to be going onto the other side of the curve," he said.

Over the past few weeks, there had been contemplation about the possibility of temporarily needing to close an elementary school if a high absence of students and teachers continued. The situation had been described as an "all hands on deck" approach as teachers filled in to cover additional classes. Because of the drop in cases, this decision appears to be less likely.

Thomson indicated that the new state policy has come about as a means of making test kits accessible to families and reducing the need for staff to conduct contact tracing. Data now shows that most of the students coming back to school after staying home after a COVID-19 exposure have had negative test results upon their return.

"The program includes sending the at-home tests home with students," he said, noting that the pool testing program will continue.

"We would no longer be doing contract tracing in the school or in Test and Stay," Thomson further explained. Symptomatic testing would be performed on an as-needed basis, which is a policy school nurses have been in favor of.

School nurses have had to devote a majority of their time to the Test and Stay and contract tracing programs, which has overtaxed staff. This observation has been explained at the past few School Committee meetings. School administrators were asked to help with contacting the parents of students have been exposed to the coronavirus, often into the late evening hours.

School Nurse Leader Jill Driscoll noted that of those students who had previously participated in the Test and Stay program, about 98 percent returned to school with a negative test result.

"I believe the idea behind the DPH and DESE decision is that we're spending a lot of time and money on a program that is not yielding identification of a lot of positive cases," she said.

Every staff member and student who choose this program will receive an IHealth 15-minute FDA-approved rapid antigen test kit every two weeks, which includes two tests. The hope is that the person would use one test per week. PCR tests are also available at school. Staff and parents will be receiving letters to this effect shortly.

Driscoll urged parents with students with COVID-19 symptoms to keep their children home.

"We will miss you desperately," she said of the students. She also cautioned parents, saying, "Don't load them up with Tylenol and send them off to school, because if they are potentially positive, they are bringing their symptoms to school."

Although Driscoll called the situation "hard for all of us" because the guidelines change as new data is learned, she is optimistic about this game plan.

If a home test result is positive, Driscoll requested that parents report this information to their school's nurse.

Another benefit to the new program, according to Thomson, is that the students will have test kits available, rather than having families seek tests externally.

Board of Health Director Sigalle Reiss said that the data compiled during the Test and Stay program has been useful in making this decision statewide.

"Our resources are changing," she said, noting that very little exposure resulting in new cases has been seen within the schools. "The situation around us is constantly changing. We need to keep adapting to it because that's just the nature of the pandemic."

The student and staff tests are due to be delivered this week so that the program can be implemented.

Driscoll noted that if students are enrolled in weekly pool testing or Test and Stay already, they will be part of the test kit program. If students want home or symptomatic testing, the parents will need to enroll their children.

Driscoll added that Norwood is doing "pretty well" on its vaccination rates. Norwood High School's partial vaccination rate has remained constant over the past two weeks at 72 percent. Once the vaccination rate reaches 80 percent, the district can apply to DESE for a mask mandate waiver at the high school.

At the Coakley Middle School, the partial vaccination rate increased one percentage point to 64 percent. The elementary school rates are remaining relatively steady at about half; the Balch is the exception with 32 percent of students receiving at least one shot.