Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston, Spencer: home, schools, live in)

[porterhouse]

Originally Posted by rach5

crazy (?)

If you want to close schools again, this is accurate.

[redplum33]

The previous 2 posts are disturbing.

[msRB311]

At this point SOOOO many people I know have had covid over the past few weeks and/or have it now. They are all doing fine, basically have a cold.

[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by msRB311

At this point SOOOO many people I know have had covid over the past few weeks and/or have it now. They are all doing fine, basically have a cold.

Anecdotally, my 20-something daughter is saying that Covid is "rampant" among her friends. Which got in the way of her social plans during the past 2 weeks' holidays!

[CaseyB]

My middle daughter had it over Christmas. It didn't last too long, she left on her Caribbean vacation last Thursday.

[NewfieMama]

Several friends' kids are home today due to testing positive over the past day or two. The school policy is that they can return to school five days after the start of symptoms, so even though the kids are technically still testing positive they can all go back tomorrow. We usually do pool testing on Tuesdays, so there are going to be many tests that come back positive, but the kids have already finished their quarantine. It starts to feel like there is no point in testing. I'm testing our family at home every 2 - 3 days, but it's getting expensive.

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by NewfieMama

Several friends' kids are home today due to testing positive over the past day or two. The school policy is that they can return to school five days after the start of symptoms, so even though the kids are technically still testing positive they can all go back tomorrow. We usually do pool testing on Tuesdays, so there are going to be many tests that come back positive, but the kids have already finished their quarantine. It starts to feel like there is no point in testing. I'm testing our family at home every 2 - 3 days, but it's getting expensive.

Our school policy is the same.

The testing thing is getting annoying especially because whenever I go to the pharmacy they are sold out of tests.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by msRB311

At this point SOOOO many people I know have had covid over the past few weeks and/or have it now. They are all doing fine, basically have a cold.

This is true of our circle of friends too. At least 8 or 9 in the past 2 weeks. All asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic (cold symptoms). All are boosted. We’re testing once or twice a week and have so far managed to avoid it but it feels like an inevitability at this point.

[rach5]

Originally Posted by NewfieMama

Several friends' kids are home today due to testing positive over the past day or two. The school policy is that they can return to school five days after the start of symptoms, so even though the kids are technically still testing positive they can all go back tomorrow. We usually do pool testing on Tuesdays, so there are going to be many tests that come back positive, but the kids have already finished their quarantine. It starts to feel like there is no point in testing. I'm testing our family at home every 2 - 3 days, but it's getting expensive.

Pooled testing is totally useless when the case rate is so high that every pool will be positive...

[NewfieMama]

Originally Posted by rach5

Pooled testing is totally useless when the case rate is so high that every pool will be positive...

Exactly, so each of the pools will come back positive and the poor school nurse is going to have to then take each pool and break it down to individual results, then cross reference those results with the students on the "cleared" list. Any non-cleared student with a positive will be notified, but then in theory the parent can just say that the kid had symptoms five days ago and technically that kid can stay in school.

I'm no longer testing unless there is a close contact (in which case the testing happens at school, anyway) or there are symptoms.