Mary Wilson
Well-known member
December 30, 2022 | 2:28 PM
By Christopher Gavin
Students and staff returning to Boston Public Schools from the holiday break next week are asked to wear masks again, at least temporarily, as the wintertime COVID surge returns to the Boston area and hospitals operate under what the city’s chief health officer called Friday a “significant strain” from the transmission of flu and other viral illnesses.
Between Jan. 4 and Jan. 13 — or for a total of eight school days — all BPS schools will adopt “temporary masking,” the district announced Friday.
Superintendent Mary Skipper wrote to families about the policy, pointing not only to new COVID variants going around, but also the flu and other respiratory illnesses on the rise.
... BPS will also continue providing students and staff with antigen test kits bi-weekly, with each kit containing two kits to allow for testing during and after the holiday break, officials said. The kits are available in all BPS schools and administrative offices.
“We ask that all students take an iHealth Antigen Test on Tuesday evening, January 3rd, or Wednesday morning, January 4th, before the start of the school day and that staff take one the day before returning back to work on January 3rd,” the district says.
... Data from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority this week shows COVID RNA levels in wastewater in the city, as well as surrounding suburbs, has returned to levels not previously seen since January 2022.
... The new variant at the core of the surge, XBB, is now the dominant form of COVID in the Northeast and is spreading fast.
The variant made up roughly 35 percent of cases in the week ahead of Dec. 17, according to CDC data. Last week, XBB was the source of over half of the cases reported.
https://www.boston.com/news/coronav...-in-boston-wastewater-return-to-winter-highs/
By Christopher Gavin
Students and staff returning to Boston Public Schools from the holiday break next week are asked to wear masks again, at least temporarily, as the wintertime COVID surge returns to the Boston area and hospitals operate under what the city’s chief health officer called Friday a “significant strain” from the transmission of flu and other viral illnesses.
Between Jan. 4 and Jan. 13 — or for a total of eight school days — all BPS schools will adopt “temporary masking,” the district announced Friday.
Superintendent Mary Skipper wrote to families about the policy, pointing not only to new COVID variants going around, but also the flu and other respiratory illnesses on the rise.
... BPS will also continue providing students and staff with antigen test kits bi-weekly, with each kit containing two kits to allow for testing during and after the holiday break, officials said. The kits are available in all BPS schools and administrative offices.
“We ask that all students take an iHealth Antigen Test on Tuesday evening, January 3rd, or Wednesday morning, January 4th, before the start of the school day and that staff take one the day before returning back to work on January 3rd,” the district says.
... Data from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority this week shows COVID RNA levels in wastewater in the city, as well as surrounding suburbs, has returned to levels not previously seen since January 2022.
... The new variant at the core of the surge, XBB, is now the dominant form of COVID in the Northeast and is spreading fast.
The variant made up roughly 35 percent of cases in the week ahead of Dec. 17, according to CDC data. Last week, XBB was the source of over half of the cases reported.
https://www.boston.com/news/coronav...-in-boston-wastewater-return-to-winter-highs/