By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — The Board of Health and Select Board unanimously voted to rescind a mask mandate in town buildings during a Feb. 10 joint meeting on Zoom.
With the exception of the schools, the mask mandate repeal went into effect immediately.
The Board of Health, Select Board and School Committee unanimously approved the mask mandate for all town buildings during a contentious and chaotic meeting last August. While all three boards signed off on the mandate, state law gave the Board of Health the authority to issue a local mask mandate for all town-owned buildings even if the other two boards objected to it.
The August 2021 vote occurred several days before the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education gave Education Commissioner Jeff Riley the authority to require students and staff to wear masks inside school buildings. Riley extended the mandate three separate times.
Riley and Gov. Charlie Baker announced on Feb. 9 that the school mask mandate will be allowed to expire on Monday, Feb. 28, which is the day students and staff return from vacation. Masks will continue to be required on school buses due to federal rules. School testing programs will also remain in place.
The state’s announcement occurred 24 hours after Superintendent Kristen Vogel was informed Lynnfield High School has reached the 80 percent student and staff vaccination benchmark. Prior to Baker and Riley’s announcement, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) allowed schools with a combined student and staff vaccination rate of at least 80 percent to ask for state permission to lift the mask mandate for both vaccinated and unvaccinated students.
“Lynnfield Public Schools has applied for a mask mandate waiver from the Department of Education,” Vogel wrote in a letter sent to families on Feb. 9. “This news was also reported to the Board of Health and Select Board, who immediately posted a joint meeting.”
If DESE approves the mask mandate waiver, Vogel said LHS “will become mask optional on Feb. 16.”
According to the Office of Emergency Management, there were 52 active COVID cases in Lynnfield as of Monday morning. There have been 3,026 total cases since the start of the pandemic and 2,940 people have recovered from COVID. Tragically, the town’s death toll increased to 34 residents over the last three weeks.
The School Department’s COVID-19 dashboard revealed there were six cases as of Monday morning. Summer Street School had the highest number of cases with four. There was one case at Huckleberry Hill School and one case at Lynnfield Middle School.
Fire Chief/Emergency Management Director Glenn Davis told the Board of Health and Select Board that both the state and the town have seen “a dramatic decrease in the number of positive cases.”
“Hospitalizations across the state continue to decline,” said Davis. “On Jan. 27, there were 2,400 patients hospitalized with COVID. There were only 1,500 patients hospitalized on Feb. 3.”
Davis noted that people using at-home COVID tests do not get reported to the Massachusetts Department Public Health and the Lynnfield Board of Health unless residents report positive test results. However, he said there are two trends that reveal positive cases are trending down statewide.
“The two indicators that do indicate the decline in new positive cases are hospitalizations and wastewater testing at the Deer Island Treatment Plant in Boston,” said Davis. “Since the beginning of COVID, they have been testing the wastewater at Deer Island and are tracking the amount of COVID infection in the wastewater. We saw a huge spike when Omicron became the prevalent variant in the beginning of December. And over the past two weeks, that spike has declined to the baseline normal where it was for most of the pandemic. That doesn’t get skewed by at-home testing or PCR testing.”
Davis said Massachusetts has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country.
“Vaccination provides the most and best protection against COVID-19,” said Davis. “Fifty-one percent of 5- to 11-year-olds have received at least one dose across Massachusetts. In Lynnfield alone, 83 percent of that same age group has received at least one dose. Eighty-three percent of the 12- to 15-year-olds across the state is fully vaccinated. In Lynnfield, over 95 percent of that same age group is fully vaccinated. In the 16- to 19-year-old age group, 82 percent of that age group in Massachusetts is fully vaccinated and Lynnfield is at 84 percent.”
Davis said 52 percent of Massachusetts residents have received a vaccine booster dose while 42 percent of the rest of the U.S. has been boosted.
“Fifty-two percent of Lynnfield residents have received a booster dose,” said Davis.
Select Board Chairman Dick Dalton acknowledged that the “past two years have been a difficult time for town residents, businesses and their employees.”
“All of our lives have been changed in some way due to this pandemic,” said Dalton. “We have seen friends and loved ones become sick, and in many cases, we have had someone close to us die due to COVID-19. Many faced loneliness and isolation as social distancing and best health practices kept friends and loved ones apart. And all of us can recall how our lives have been disrupted in countless ways. Businesses faced shutdowns and altered operations.
Students, teachers and parents had their lives turned upside down by the loss of in-person learning and the cancellation or modification of activities.”
Dalton said firefighters, police officers and medical professionals have been asked “time and time again to put their own health and lives at risk to assist those in need.”
“Essential workers also faced these risks to keep our economy running to meet the basic needs of our society during this time,” said Dalton. “I want to thank all of those people who did so much to make sure that the rest of us could have the best care, the best education and the best quality of life possible during this trying time. Thank you to all the town employees who came to work every day under difficult circumstances. Thank you to our school personnel for making sure Lynnfield’s children kept learning despite the unprecedented obstacles and challenges that they faced. Thank you to the parents, students, residents, and business owners and their employees who worked so hard to keep their fellow citizens safe while continuing to go about their daily routines.”
Dalton acknowledged that, “Many difficult decisions had to be made during the pandemic.”
“Both nationally and locally, there has been vigorous debate on a number of issues surrounding the pandemic,” said Dalton. “While we may have disagreed on specific measures, I know that everyone has had the best interests of their families and their community at heart. I want to thank the Emergency Management Team and Emergency Management Director Glenn Davis for their efforts to guide the town through these many difficult decisions. In the team’s regular meetings, I was able to witness the thoughtful consideration given to the data, the latest guidance from the federal and the state agencies, and the ramifications of national, state and local policies and actions. Thank you all for your work.”
While Dalton stressed that “the pandemic is not over” and townspeople have to remain “vigilant,” he said the time has come for the town mask mandate to be lifted.
Board of Health Chairman Dr. Rocco Iocco concurred with Dalton’s point of view.
“There have been many sacrifices people have made over the last two years,” said Dr. Iocco. “We are very thankful for the work that has been put in by the Emergency Management Team and Glenn Davis. The pandemic is certainly not over, but things are trending in the correct way. We have ways to combat the virus. I think it is appropriate that we try to return to as normal of a life as we can.”
There were no members of the public who spoke during the joint meeting. After the discussion, the two boards unanimously voted to lift the mask mandate for all town buildings.
In the wake of the state school mask mandate and the town mandate getting lifted, Vogel stated in her Feb. 9 letter that “the remaining public schools will become mask optional” on Monday, Feb. 28.
— The State House News Service contributed to this report.
