Today, the Town of Southborough updated its website. This weekend, six more cases of Covid-19 were confirmed. Patients cross a range of ages from under 20 to over 70.
If the state applied its metrics to the last 14 days as of today, we’d be designated red again.* (And we just made it back to yellow.)
Currently, only 7 cases are listed as active. That appears to mean that all cases confirmed prior to the 20th were released from isolation.
The updated data is below. (Click to enlarge)
*It is possible that the state will still designate Southborough as yellow on the weekly report to be posted Wednesday evening. It depends on whether or not they capture the new cases in data through Saturday, October 24th.
Updated (10/25/20 5:20 pm): I mistakenly cited 7 new cases. There were seven active cases, six of them new.
NSboro schools decided to go ahead with a hybrid model starting in September. Reading about the recent COVID-19 numbers for Southborough and looking at the graph provided would suggest the model in use by the school system is not keeping people safe from this viral infection.
The curve for the 19 and under group shows a disturbingly steep incline beginning in mid-September. Closely following its increase is the curve for the 40s age group, most probably the parents of the younger group.
Weeks ago I read a plea from school administrators reminding parents to ensure they and their children were practicing social distancing and mask wearing procedures. The number of new COVID-19 cases would suggest the plea has gone unheard.
As the caseload increases this places everyone at greater risk of exposure. This means people with no school age children, singles and, most especially, seniors. The combined school committees, Town health departments and Town officials need to act on this situation – YESTERDAY.
Demand more from your town’s “officials”. They’re supposed to be working for you!
What are you people waiting for – the graphs to become completely vertical? Has so-called herd immunity become the new laissez-faire “strategy”?
There have been no cases of transmission in the schools so how would closing then help?
Or maybe the model is working as it is meant to be, balancing interests of working parents, young children that NEED socialization and in-person elements to their educations, and a lot of other factors with hysterical reactions from some part of the population that isn’t keeping up with recent estimates on mortality of COVID-19, developments in treatments and lots of other advances.
Totally agree. The days our kids are in school are the days both the kids AND the parents are most productive and happiest. Our kids have never loved school more and truly need the in person learning.
Experiment?!?!-What is not working? The kids should be in school more not less. Stop living in fear from something that is not having a significant impact on the kids. They need socialization and an education IN school. If you want to take your kids out please go ahead, you have the option to do so. The numbers are not significant and kids are socializing more outside of school than they are inside. It’s the best place for them to be, in school!
As far as I have heard there have been zero cases transmitted in Southborough schools. School may be one of the safest places for kids to be due to the very strict protocols in place. Data from across the country supports that where safety protocols are being adhered to, spread is minimal. As far as I am concerned, every new phase of opening should be viewed through the lens of what will keep kids in school and daycares operating. We cannot fully open the economy without functioning schools and daycares, and I am fearful for the mental and physical health of children if we have prolonged periods without school.
One can pick up this virus while grocery shopping, let’s not assume people are not following the rules. Let’s not forget the teachers and admins are humans as well and can also bring this to school.
Charlie Baker made an excellent point in a WSJ story this week. Religious schools in Mass are operating with full time schedules and COVID transmission is negligible. Why can they do it, with less funding and public schools are having such issues?
” Religious schools in Mass are operating with full time schedules and COVID transmission is negligible.”
Probably because many of those schools are small and strongly based in the concept of community.
Consistent mask-wearing and social distancing require individuals to understand their actions to affect their community. Religious schools by definition are more community based; they exist for pursuit of common purpose.
Individualism reigns supreme in public schools, where freedom of speech (and action) is often demanded. When a public school tells a student to wear (or not wear) something or when (and where) a family can vacation, and lawyers are called. Public dialogue often sets ups a transactional paradigm of public schools, such as when “taxpayers” (customers) demand a certain product or accommodation from “the schools,” (the business), which they see as existing to serve individual students and families. With this type of more individualized expectation, it’s not surprising that there could be far less reliability of mask-wearing and social distancing outside of school.
It’s also worth noting that many religious schools in Massachusetts are Catholic, and Catholicism is rule-oriented. Catholic schools are generally filled with families and staff who expect to be held to standards and for consequences (such as expulsion) to come as a result of not following the standards of behavior. Public schools, attendance at which is the right of every school-age child in Massachusetts, lack tools to enforce rules in the ways private and Catholic schools might.