COVID rise causes high school to go remote, sports canceled for one week

Dr. Eric Conti, superintendent of Burlington’s public schools, announced Sunday that due to a rise in COVID-19 cases at the high school, classes would be fully remote until May 3 and all athletic practices and games would be canceled for the next week.

A phone message to parents and staff sent on Sunday stated in part, “Over the last week, we have seen 10 cases of COVID-19 impacting Burlington High School students. Prior to last week, we only had 25 cases at BHS all year. The rise in cases has also caused the number of students on quarantine to grow to 130 in just a few days.”

It is the policy of the Burlington school department to move any classroom with a confirmed case of COVID-19 to remote learning for two weeks. 

Because the week of April 19 is spring break, full return of in-person classes will be delayed until May 3, in case high school cases continue to rise, Conti said.

“Please remember that the pandemic is not over and that there are more contagious variants of the virus in our area. Please practice caution over spring break and I would encourage you to get vaccinated as soon as you are able,” he said.

Burlington by the numbers

As of April 8, there have been 1,861 total reported cases in Burlington according to numbers posted on the state’s weekly public health report. The average daily rate of positive cases per 100,000 people over the past two weeks rose from 17.2 to 25.2 from the week before, and the percent of positive cases over the same two-week period also rose, from to 2.83% to 3.52%. The town remains in the yellow risk category, with the percentage of positive cases below 5% per 100,000 residents. To drop to the “green” zone, the town would need to register fewer than 10 cases.

• Total count: 1861
• Case count over last 14 days: 98
• Average daily incidence rate per 100,000 over the last 14 days: 25.2
• Relative change in case counts: Higher
• Total tests:  50,966
• Total tests last 14 days: 3,184
• Total positive tests last 14 days:
• Percent positivity last 14 days: 3.52%
• Change in percent positivity: Higher

More:Schools see multiple COVID cases this week

Burlington vaccination numbers 

The commonwealth’s COVID-19 dashboard has been updated to report on the vaccination progress of towns and cities.

The following Burlington data is from April 8:

• Population: 27,819
• Residents with at least one dose: 11,060
• Residents with at least one dose per capita: 40%
• Fully vaccinated individuals: 6,466
• Fully vaccinated residents per capita: 23%