Peabody Coronavirus School Cases Surge; No Business Mask Order

PEABODY, MA — The Peabody Board of Health will continue to recommend universal masking inside public schools regardless of vaccination status with the state-imposed mask mandate scheduled to expire next week — but opted not to institute a similar requirement inside city businesses — at its meeting Thursday night.

The Board backed Health Director Sharon Cameron's recommendation that the mask mandate remains in schools after her presentation where she said those under 19 years old now account for the highest rate of infected residents in the city, and that there were 30 confirmed cases among students in the first full week of school.

She said 12 of those cases — which she called "a significant cluster" — came from one elementary school. She did not identify the school in question.

"We are definitely seeing a lot of spread in Peabody — especially among the student population," she said.

The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education issued a universal indoor mask mandate for schools one week before the start of the new school year through Oct. 1. Under that guidance, which had not been updated as of Thursday, districts would then have the option of making masks voluntarily among vaccinated students if students and staff in an individual school building reach 80 percent vaccination.

Cameron said Thursday night no Peabody school is in line to meet that goal with 57 percent of students ages 12 to 15 vaccinated and 67 percent of those 16 to 19 vaccinated.

She said that while hospitalizations are still well short of the level of last spring, the city recently had a "few very serious hospitalizations among young people."

Cameron said 10 of the 12 cases at the one elementary school came in the same grade between two classrooms.

"We can't say definitively that we had in-school transmission in all of those cases," Cameron said. "We do think there was in-school transmission in some of the cases. But we're also aware of a number of social events, and sports events, and sleepovers, and other things like that that may have contributed to the exposure."

Health Board Chair Tom Durkin said the Board will continue to monitor the data, but there was no significant discussion on expanding the indoor mask mandate to include business. Since Salem instituted its indoor business mandate as of Aug. 23 through at least Nov. 13, no other North Shore cities or towns have followed suit.

"The Board hasn't been hesitant to impose mandatory masks when we thought it was necessary," Durkin said. "We're not opposed to meeting off of our regular schedule either.

"We are concerned that this needs to be watched carefully. ... Do we make a decision to go to mandatory masks today? ... What we're inclined to say is 'no' but to continue to watch the data very carefully. And we do."

Cameron noted that independent businesses have the right to set their own mask requirements for entrance and that the Health Department "would support any business that took that step."

Did you find this article useful? Invite a friend to subscribe to Patch.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

More Patch Coverage: Peabody Free Coronavirus Testing Dates Through December

Peabody Mayor Ted Bettencourt: MA 'Took Away Our Local Authority'

Peabody Board Of Health Issues Indoor Mask Recommendation