The Nantucket Public Schools nursing staff has observed a “sharp rise” in cases of COVID-19, flu and RSV among students of all ages, prompting them to send a letter home to parents and guardians on the situation. The memo urges them to consider keeping their children home if they are experiencing symptoms, consult with the school nursing staff before allowing them to return to campus, and to get vaccinated against both influenza and COVID-19.
“Though you may still send your child to school if fully vaccinated and experiencing mild symptoms, we would like to remind you that more often than not, we are seeing mild symptom presentation with positive covid cases in the school,” the nursing staff wrote. “Though this is reassuring that the vaccine is doing its job, it is still a risk in the school setting.”
After more than a year without a single diagnosed case of flu on the island, Nantucket Cottage Hospital has recorded a small spike over the past two months, corresponding with what nurses at the schools are seeing. There have been 21 diagnosed cases of influenza A out of 312 tests administered at Nantucket Cottage Hospital, a 6.7 percent test positivity rate. Similarly for RSV, the hospital administered 306 tests of which 14 were positive, a 4.6 percent positivity rate.
“These numbers are a bit high considering how early we are in the flu season,” Nantucket Cottage Hospital public information manager James Lanza said. “For now, we’re continuing to encourage everyone to get vaccinated, as well as everyday steps to mitigate infection, like practicing good hand hygiene, avoiding contact with others that are sick and disinfecting high contact areas that could harbor germs.”
While the public schools still have an indoor mask requirement for all students and staff, the town’s indoor mask order was lifted last week ahead of the Christmas Stroll weekend in light of reduced SARS-CoV-2 virus concentration in island sewage as compared to other communities. With the mask mandate lifted and the island entering cold and flu season, the rising numbers of COVID-19, RSV and influenza are to be expected, Health Department Director Roberto Santamaria said.
“As the masks get removed, what we’re going to start seeing is a resurgence of viruses that we got used to not having over the last two years,” Santamaria said. “RSV and flu are two of the most virulent viruses that we know of to humanity and spread heavily and aggressively. We’re going to be seeing a large resurgence all at once in the next few months as people get re-exposed to viruses they’ve had waning immunity to.”
The hospital has also opened a new flu clinic vaccine on Thursday, Dec. 16 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. for anyone over the age of six months at the Anderson Building.
