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COVID-19 watchers have been keeping an eye on wastewater across the state to spot trends in the disease’s prevalence, and Wellesley is weighing whether it should start sampling its sewage for this, too.

The topic was raised at recent Wellesley Select Board and Board of Health meetings.

We reached out to town officials about this in April after hearing mentions at various board meetings of such possible testing, but didn’t hear back. Select Board member Lise Olney had more luck in directing a question about this to Public Health Director Lenny Izzo during the May 24 Select Board meeting (see Wellesley Media recording at the 1-hour, 7-minute mark).

To date, Wellesley has relied on the southern grouping of data from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, according to Izzo, who last week took part in a call with the group monitoring wastewater for the state. Biobot Analytics, based in Cambridge, has worked with the state, Boston, and other individual communities, including Cambridge and Gloucester.

Izzo said Wellesley was awaiting more detailed pricing information, though indicated it could be a little bit less expensive than he anticipated based on the initial briefing. “One thing I did like about their program is that they have the ability to test for high-risk substances,” he said. “It’s definitely worth a conversation.”

The Health Department could coordinate with the Department of Public Works on sampling wastewater, then rely on a testing partner for analyzing the presence of COVID-19 as well as substances such as nicotine and fentanyl. COVID reports could be delivered weekly, and drug reports monthly.

The town is exploring the possibility of getting into the state testing system, possibly as soon as July.

The Board of Health briefly discussed the topic as well at its May 25 meeting (see Wellesley Media recording at about 28 minutes in). Wellesley resident Dr. Shira Doron, who heads up epidemiology at Tufts Medical Center, posed the question of what Wellesley would get from its own testing vs. what it gets from Boston-area testing regarding COVID. But that it would have the potential for measuring the prevalence of other diseases down the road.

Board member Linda Oliver Grape said that there could be a window of opportunity to get this funded with non-town monies, so that it’s worth at least learning more about the cost if this could be used to track additional illnesses, opioid use, etc.

On the opioid front, Board member Marcia Testa Simonson said that before-and-after wastewater testing data could help to measure the effectiveness of intervention programs.

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So much for those designer cloth masks that so many of us have been styling to ward off COVID-19 spread. If you haven’t already, it’s time to invest in the N95 or KN95 masks and make sure they’re properly fitted…and that you don’t keep fussing with them using your filthy hands.

The Board of Health recently made clear its preference for the more effective masks, and now Wellesley Public Schools and local churches are singing that same tune.

 

Wellesley Public Schools, which should be updating the entire town on this public health situation, on Thursday updated just the school community on COVID-19 matters. The schools, scrambling to recruit substitute teachers to fill in for those who are out due to COVID protocols, have documented 200-plus COVID-19 cases in its population since Monday.

“Our mask mandate remains in effect at all schools.  It remains important that everyone wear an appropriate mask, which is fitted properly.  We ask that no one wear a cloth mask in school.  A surgical mask should be the minimum mask worn, with KN95 and N95 masks providing further protection.  All staff were issued KN95 masks this week.  While we do not have a similar inventory to provide these masks to all students, each school does have an ample supply of surgical masks to provide them to students if needed.”

WPS emphasized that its population’s vaccination rates are high and that this helps to lessen the impact of the virus on those who contract it.

WPS Supt. Dr. David Lussier said during this week’s Board of Health meeting (about 10 minutes into the Wellesley Media recording) that nearly 600 out of 4,200 students were out on Monday, and that that absentee figure decreased by about 100 a day as the week went on. Nearly 150 staff members were out on Wednesday, causing the school system to get creative in order to have enough adults on hand for classroom and supervision work.

Lussier acknowledged, in response to a question from Board member Linda Oliver Grape regarding the spirit of students: “I think there’s a lot of anxiety across the board. I think that’s true for staff who are also parents themselves and are managing their own children in other districts… I think there’s anxiety among parents, among students as case numbers go up. I would say all this feels relatively fragile going forward. At the same time I think we believe fairly strongly that schools may be the safest place for people to be in…there’s lots of ways that exposure can occur outside of school and we know the impact of what happens when students are not in school…. we really want to do everything we can to keep our doors open…”

Among area places of worship stepping up their mask guidance is Village Church in Wellesley Square, which will supply masks for those who need them to attend services:

“As we continue to monitor the pandemic, we seek to follow the best available guidance to keep our communities healthy and safe.  We continue to require masks during all in-person gatherings.  Considering the recent rise in cases of the omicron variant, we ask that all who attend in-person gatherings please wear the best mask available.  Research indicates that “respirator masks” (N95, KN95, KF94, etc.) are much more effective than cloth masks.  Please wear the most effective mask you have and consider purchasing more effective masks if possible….”

The Archdiocese of Boston has extended its mask mandate into March, which affects Wellesley’s St. John-St. Paul Catholic Collaborative.

More serious measures are in the works around town. The Council on Aging, for example, will have a vaccination mandate discussion.

Know of other more strict COVID rules being put into place in town? theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

Thank you to members of the WPS community who passed along the schools’ latest COVID memo to us!

Check out My Vax Records to review your vaccination records

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Here’s a recap of the April 12 Wellesley Board of Health meeting:

School updates: No prom; encouraging vax data; after-school care conundrum

The state’s Department of Elementary & Secondary Education has issued its long-awaited guidance on proms, and it is strongly discouraging schools for hosting them. “We agree that that seems like the safest choice at this point, and that we should put our energy into other types of senior activities that don’t include that same level of risk,” said Wellesley Public Schools Supt. Dr. David Lussier, in speaking with town health officials and school administration.

Not going ahead with prom could save other activities, such as graduation, he said.

In terms of safeguarding faculty and staff, nearly 800 members of the Wellesley Public School team has reported having at least one vaccine dose, which amounts to more than 80%. WPS Head of Nursing Linda Corridan said the numbers are probably higher given that not everyone reports their vaccinations with the school system, as it is personal information. WPS does not have data on how many faculty and staff have completed their vaccinations.

Wellesley Public Schools reported 6 new cases last week, plus 3 more Monday at the high school. Recent cases have been the result of family member transmission, Corridan said.

Lussier said there is heightened sensitivity in light of middle school students returning for full in-classroom education this week, and the high school returning after next week’s vacation week. He’s hopeful that families will take it easy on travel during the break. A surge could hit hard due to the new 3-foot guidance within schools—if there are positive COVID-19 cases, many more close contacts can be affected and wind up out of classrooms.

Another issue of great interest to the school community is after-school care. Parents and guardians have been making inquiries to each other as well as to the Health Department, School Department, and School Committee about availability of after-school care for the next school year in the fall, and Lussier acknowledges coming up with answers isn’t easy.

“We recognize for families, especially working families, how important after-school care is…,” he said. “We are absolutely facing some challenges in being able to identify all the elements that may or may not be in place in the fall for when these programs would be running.”

One parent actually reached out to me as I was finishing this post, and mentioned that several parents plan to call in for citizen speak about this topic at the School Committee meeting on Tuesday night.

“WPS has said that they cannot confirm until July. July does not provide adequate time for the [Wellesley Community Children’s Center] to hire their staff. This also puts families in limbo as they do not know whether they will have aftercare next year or not. It seems to me there are some equity issues here as this is more detrimental to the families that either have a single-parent family or dual working parents,” the parent wrote.

Wellesley’s schools don’t look like they normally do, with spaces reengineered to accommodate spacing between students during the pandemic. Lussier showed images of the Sprague cafeteria, which is housing furniture and other materials, and the Schofield gym, which is being repurposed for regular classroom learning rather than Phys Ed.

 

Until the school system gets guidance from the state on social distancing standards for next year, it’s hard for Wellesley to identify how spaces will be able to accommodate after-school programs. Wellesley Health Director Lenny Izzo didn’t sound surprised that guidance has become available in light of summer camp guidance only being revealed of late. Among his questions is whether after-school programs would be lumped in with school or with camp, as that could have an impact on whether separation between participants is 3 or 6 feet.

The parent who emailed us said: “I also believe that if we need to store things, we could look at renting storage space or storage pods. Three neighboring communities are moving forward with their after school programs Wellesley should also be moving forward as well and commit to this for the fall.”

Lussier said the question isn’t whether there will be after-school programs, but how big they can be based on the space available. The School Department has encouraged the Wellesley Community Children’s Center, which typically serves a few hundred kids, to start the preregistration process, without committing to services. This will at least give WPS and WCCC a sense of what the level of interest in its programs might be (an outsider’s guess: high!).

COVID-19 numbers

Ann Marie McCauley, the town’s public health nurse supervisor, described this past week as a busy one, with Babson College reporting 18 cases over the span of two days, though only a few since then. The town had an additional 30 cases, including one at Wellesley College, and town’s positivity rate has risen from 0.46% to 0.70% over the past week.

There’s a chance Babson’s president might join the Wellesley Health Department on a call this week. The school has placed additional restrictions on students in light of concering case counts.

The oldest person reported positive last week in town was 60 years old, and most positive cases were among those under 30 years of age, many under 20. “I’m feeling really hopeful that as people are getting vaccinated we’re knocking out a whole group from getting infected,” McCauley said.

Wellesley’s Health Department and Board of Health last week issued a reminder to the town to be vigilant in taking COVID-19 precautions. Health Director Izzo said they did get 1 positive letter in response, though more negative ones. “It’s the reality…we continue to see non-compliance in the community and on the playing courts. It’s really frustrating…” he said.

Mental health resources

The Board of Health also discussed, in the week of a recent meeting on mental and behavioral health, where the town’s service gaps exist.

There are not an adequate number of child and adolescent psychologists or psychiatrists, or social workers, Board Chair Shep Cohen said, and professionals in this area are overwhelmed. Even the Human Relations Service that offers mental health services refers out many of the calls it gets, he said.

The town needs to look at additional funding options to pay for more social and behavioral health workers, as well as to support vulnerable families that might need help paying for summer camp, Cohen added. This could include reevaluating the way the town currently contracts for services.

Supt. Lussier said the School Department has built an additional $20K into its budget to expand the hours for social workers throughout the summer, and he’s hoping Town Meeting will approve that. “We’re going to need to make the case in a coordinated way in a very challenging budget context for why these things are needed,” he said.

WPS Head of Nursing Corridan said one continuing concern is that high school students have spent considerable time in waiting rooms and observation beds because no psychiatric beds have be available locally.

Izzo said the town is seeking more information on MetroWest Medical Center facility’s transition to a complete focus on behavioral health after shuttering its emergency room last year in Natick. The hope is that significantly more beds will become available soon, he said, and it’s possible Wellesley and Natick’s health departments could set up a meeting with MetroWest to get an update. The problem, he said, is that: “Those beds will probably be full the day they open…”

Board member Linda Oliver Grape said that “the reality is the behavioral health landscape in our state and probably nationwide has been totally revamped as a result of COVID.” Telehealth visits have exploded much more so for behavioral health than for other medical health conditions, she said, noting that 75% of behavioral health visits in January were done online vs. 20% of other medical visits.

“The demand is so great for psychiatrists that they can write their own ticket and have a cash fee-for-service-only practice, and that puts people that have limited financial resources at a real disadvantage,” Oliver Grape said.

Senior Community Social Worker Joyce Saret noted that telehealth meetings for mental health care vs. in-person meetings with masks on can be a better experience, except for the very young. “People are getting very creative,” she said.

Creativity is what will be required of the town too to get the funding it needs, Izzo said.

“We have to think outside the box… I think we owe it to the town,” he said.

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Here’s a recap of Wellesley’s Board of Health meeting from Monday, March 29.

Wellesley Public Schools COVID-19 update

The school system is revving up for its full return in-person classes in April, with elementary, middle, and high schools returning in that order. Some 900 students in grades 3-5 have begun participating in the weekly COVID-19 viral pool testing program, which will continue through the rest of the school year for students and staff, and Supt. Dr. David Lussier was happy to report that for the fifth straight week the COVID-19 dashboard was all green across all indicators. Whispers of grade inflation are sure to follow…

Going in to the weekend about 65% of the staff had at least one vaccination, up from 62% the week before. But the state’s dedicated teacher vaccinations started this past weekend, so that means even higher numbers will be known shortly, likely near 70%. An “extremely positive trajectory,” Lussier said.

Expect more details on the school return plan, including challenges of scheduling lunch in a safe way at the high school, at Tuesday night’s School Committee meeting. One challenge, Lussier said, is that the state is sticking with 6-foot social distancing guidance in general, but now allowing 3-foot distances between individuals in schools, creating potential for confusion.

One upcoming concern is how travel during school vacation in April could affect infection rates among the WPS community now that the state Travel Order has been relaxed to a guide.

One more immediate worry for the board was a newspaper photo of the Wellesley High football team, largely unmasked, celebrating its recent victory over rival Needham. Board of Health member Linda Oliver Grape, noting that the board has given school sports the go-ahead recently, asked that the WPS athletic director reemphasize to all teams the importance of completely adhering to COVID-19 protocols, especially given the greater preponderance of infections these days among those age 29 and below. Lussier said Athletic Director John Brown and Wellesley High Principal Dr. Jamie Chisum have reinforced the importance of following the health rules to students.

Something that surprised Director of Community and Public Health Lenny Izzo in a recent call with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health was that the bulk of COVID-19 transmission related to sports of late has been through games and practices, not outside activities involving participants.

Another topic on the WPS radar is prom, which as Lussier has pointed out, is typically not a bastion of social distancing. State guidance is expected within the next few weeks.

Discouraging numbers

COVID-19 cases have been on the upswing statewide, and the same is true in Wellesley.  Ann Marie McCauley, the town’s public health nurse supervisor, says the town has been seeing about 5 new cases a day over the past, with 13 more over the weekend. Many of those infected have had only mild symptoms. Anecdotally, she’s been seeing groups of kids in town close together and maskless. “I don’t know if they’re just sick of it…I don’t know what to say,” she said.

At the same time, the Health Department has seen an increase in requests for private indoor and outdoor events in light of COVID-19 restrictions lessening.

On the vaccine front, the local health department is getting vaccines for second doses at senior housing, and that’s it based on current state distribution plans.

Board Chair Shep Cohen, finishing a report based on a recent mental health forum, said one goal of the department may be to seek additional funding for social service workers heading into the summer. External therapists are hard to come by for community members, he said. Senior Community Social Worker Joyce Saret reported that her team will be keeping in close contact with school health officials as students return to in-person classes and possible mental health issues can be better assessed.

Looking ahead to summer, the Board of Health meets with the Recreation Department next week to discuss Morses Pond plans.

Wellesley’s Wonderful Weekend: Fall edition

Select Board member Beth Sullivan Woods says Wellesley’s Wonderful weekend, which had already been scrapped for May, has been slated for the weekend of Oct. 3. That will be followed a week later by the Boston Marathon, which has been moved from its usual April date.

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