Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston, Cambridge: home, schools, colleges)

[charolastra00]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

Technically, in order to meet the 14-day quarantine for persons coming in from out of state, those students should be coming into town in the next week? I seriously doubt many are actually doing this.

With Sept 1 being a big move-in day, can see plenty of kids moving in that day, getting affairs in order and showing up to class the next day or so. Of course that assumes they don't get the neg test 3-days prior.

I actually know of several people who were out of state in PA or other locations deemed "high-risk" who came back on Sun AUg 2nd, and then went to work like nothing happened on Monday.

That whole travel ban/quarantine rule has no teeth.

Our students who are coming from out of state indeed are arriving next week. They are asked to get a test in their hometown in advance, and will also be tested once they arrive on campus and will be tested twice a week through the semester. They will be quarantined in their rooms until they have two negative test results (either from home and on campus, or two on campus) with food delivery. Massachusetts as a whole exempts people from hot states who have taken a PCR test on a sample obtained 72 hours before arrival to Mass, but in most places the results won't be in soon enough.


Not much we can do about students who have chosen to live off-campus, unfortunately. Especially for students who live off-campus and are taking all online classes - if they don't tell us they're local, we won't know.



Even outdoors, students and staff will be required to wear masks. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with the compliance I've seen even with students who have remained living in apartments off campus all summer or who have come in for dining services or library jobs. They wear masks on their walks to and from school.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by charolastra00

Our students who are coming from out of state indeed are arriving next week. They are asked to get a test in their hometown in advance, and will also be tested once they arrive on campus and will be tested twice a week through the semester. They will be quarantined in their rooms until they have two negative test results (either from home and on campus, or two on campus) with food delivery. Massachusetts as a whole exempts people from hot states who have taken a PCR test on a sample obtained 72 hours before arrival to Mass, but in most places the results won't be in soon enough.


Not much we can do about students who have chosen to live off-campus, unfortunately. Especially for students who live off-campus and are taking all online classes - if they don't tell us they're local, we won't know.



Even outdoors, students and staff will be required to wear masks. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with the compliance I've seen even with students who have remained living in apartments off campus all summer or who have come in for dining services or library jobs. They wear masks on their walks to and from school.

That's pretty impressive actually.

[charolastra00]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

That's pretty impressive actually.

Our on-the-ground staff are still freaking out - especially res life staff.


But to see that some schools are only testing once when students arrive - or not at all - makes me want to vomit. I spend a lot of time looking at area colleges to see what is being planned and while some have really great plans in place, others seem to be going into it blind. I'm looking at you, BC.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by charolastra00

Our on-the-ground staff are still freaking out - especially res life staff.
.

Im sure they are. My wife and her coworkers have been in overdrive mode the last month trying to come up with plans and ideas for all the different scenarios they will come across. I can only imagine what it will be like for res staff in a campus for of young adults who want to be free.

[Bridge781]

438 new cases. Yikes.

[charolastra00]

Really not looking forward to more days of daily test results that make me scream out loud.


Sites that track various state-by-state measures have our contact tracing down to less than 50% since the layoffs a few weeks ago. When are we going to hire those folks back to effectively trace the outbreaks?

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

Im sure they are. My wife and her coworkers have been in overdrive mode the last month trying to come up with plans and ideas for all the different scenarios they will come across. I can only imagine what it will be like for res staff in a campus for of young adults who want to be free.

None of us expected so many students to come back, especially with almost all classes online aside from a handful of labs, studios, or experiential learning programs.

[mdovell]

From what I've been reading is we should find out very soon about school reopenings.

https://www.wcvb.com/article/emergen...onday/33496483

But at the same point we aren't tracking students we just wait for it to...pop up?
https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/08...re-inevitable/

Worcester is planning the mother of all zoom meetings to explain what they are doing on Thursday. Monday is when everything comes out. This is going to get complicated that's for sure.

[BostonMike7]

Looks like RI is now a high risk state and requires quarantine

[redplum33]

Originally Posted by charolastra00

Sites that track various state-by-state measures have our contact tracing down to less than 50% since the layoffs a few weeks ago. When are we going to hire those folks back to effectively trace the outbreaks?

Unfortunately, contact tracing is pretty much pointless unless the test results come back quickly. There are still long delays.

[NewfieMama]

We had a 4-hour school board committee meeting last night--vote didn't happen until almost 11pm, but ultimately the hybrid model was approved and what our town is officially submitting to the state as our plan. No remote start, elementary school cohorts are morning or afternoon (8:55am - 11:30am or 12:45 to 3:20 pm). No lunches in school, which makes cleaning between cohorts easier. Busing for all elementary kids, but I think other grades are > 2 miles from school.

Middle school and high school are slightly different with kids going for full days, but alternating days.

Honestly 9/16 feels so far away right now that I'm not sure what will happen between now and then. I'm planning for the hybrid model and hiring part-time help for at-home learning since children will be expected to do remote learning when they are not physically in school. If we go full remote I don't know if I can continue to work full-time. My kids have been in full-day camp all summer and it's been great for our family--my children are happier...probably because I'm yelling less.

We have been at Hershey Park in PA for the past two days and it's been awesome. Sanitizing between rides, masks are enforced, social distancing is easy because it's not too crowded, space between people on rides. It's honestly the best amusement park experience I've had (I'm not a Disney person, but definitely prefer this because there are so few people!). We just got tested today before we go back to MA and the only other family getting tested while we were there was also from MA.