Two people in the area, including one person who’s part of Williamsburg’s Anne T. Dunphy School community, could have cases of COVID-19, officials at Amherst-Pelham Regional Public Schools and Hampshire Regional School District announced Saturday.
Amherst-Pelham Regional Public Schools Superintendent Michael Morris originally sent an email to the school community saying that “the local Boards of Health were notified that a parent/guardian of a student at Amherst Regional High School has been diagnosed as presumptive positive for COVID-19.”
But in a phone interview with the Gazette, Morris later clarified that this diagnosis was based on symptoms, not on a positive test. He sent another email making this distinction to the school community.
The state Department of Public Health generally uses the term “presumptive positive” in cases where people test positive for the coronavirus and the term “confirmed positive” when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention corroborates the positive test.
Also Saturday, the Hampshire Regional School District sent an email to the community saying that school officials were made aware Friday evening that “a member of our schools” had a presumptive positive case of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.
That district’s superintendent, Aaron Osborne, later sent a followup email, stating that a member of Anne T. Dunphy School community has been identified as being “presumed positive” for COVID-19. Osborne made a similar clarification as Morris: “To be clear, this is NOT a positive test, but a presumption based on symptoms,” he wrote, citing the limited number of COVID-19 tests that are readily available in the state.
“While it is a challenging scenario,” Osborne wrote, the case “should be viewed as an anecdotal marker” that there are likely many more cases in the community. “We cannot stress enough the importance of social distancing and standard safety measures as part of your daily routines.”
Both school districts announced Friday that they would close schools until a tentative date of March 30 because of the global coronavirus pandemic. As of Saturday, the state Department of Public Health had not reported any presumed or confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Hampshire and Hampden counties. There are 138 confirmed or presumptive positive cases of COVID-19 in Massachusetts, according to DPH.
In a phone interview, Morris said he could not say which town the parent was from, or whether the person was tested for the coronavirus.
Morris said the school district was following the advice of local public health officials, who recommend mass communication to alert community members of presumptive positive cases — though this communication was released without a positive test result and was based on symptoms.
Morris said the town of Amherst set up a hotline for two hours Saturday for parents to ask questions of school district and town staff under guidance from public health officials. He also said the school district will be continuously assessing with public health officials when schools might reopen.
“In Amherst and everywhere else this is an evolving situation day by day, and we will continue to communicate accurate information to the greater community,” Morris said. “Even though school is closed, we will continue to communicate as the need arises.”
Ashley Messier, 17, a Belchertown High School junior who was going to take the SATs at Amherst Regional High School on Saturday morning, decided not to because of the coronavirus — though she didn’t know of the potential case at the time. Her school has also closed until at least March 30. Messier said the SAT testing still took place.
“I was really thinking they were going to cancel them — I couldn’t believe they didn’t,” Messier said. “There are students coming from all over the area to take the SAT — it’s just not smart.”
Messier said there’s palpable anxiety among students in her school about the coronavirus.
“You can feel it in the halls,” she said.
David Daley, a journalist and author, has a child who attends the Anne T. Dunphy School in Williamsburg, one of six schools in the Hampshire Regional School District.
After receiving the initial email from the district earlier in the day, Daley said that while he appreciates school officials communicating with parents about COVID-19, he believes the communication was far too vague.
“This communication seems profoundly unhelpful in a moment where people are justifiably anxious and fearful,” Daley said. “To tell us simply that a member of the schools has been diagnosed does nothing to help parents take a course of action.” Osborne named the school community in question later Saturday.
Daley also said it was “puzzling” that it took until Friday for primary and secondary schools to close down as universities announced closures earlier in the week.
Osborne had not responded to request for comment by phone or email by 7 p.m. Saturday.
Several grocery stores announced they are cutting their hours, citing the need to better stock shelves and ramp up cleaning. Starting Monday, both Big Y and Stop & Shop will be open 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
“In order to allow more time for our associates to unload deliveries, stock shelves, and better serve you throughout the day, we are adjusting our hours,” a Stop & Shop press release reads.
The change at Big Y “will give our store teams time to conduct additional preventive sanitation and restock product on shelves,” its website says.