This week’s individual community COVID-19 data revealed that North Andover now has the highest average daily case rate in the state, easily surpassing communities that have long topped the list, like Chelsea, Lawrence, and Revere.
But town officials are continuing with a hybrid education model in the public schools while they continue to monitor the data, and that’s because the surge in new cases has been attributed, and contained, to an outbreak at Merrimack College.
“Based on the current data available as well as conversations with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health that situation appears to be stable,” a message posted to the town website says. “Again, based on contact tracing, there is NO evidence of community spread to the Town of North Andover due to the positive cases at Merrimack College.”
According to state data, North Andover had an average daily case rate of 26.2 per 100,000 residents for the last two weeks, easily blowing past the minimum criteria to be considered high risk — greater than 8 cases per 100,000 people on average per day. There have been 111 positive cases recorded there over the same time period; the positivity rate was 1.43 percent.
Merrimack moved to remote-only learning for the current week with classes expected to resume in person on Monday, a decision that came after the college discovered “an additional 12 isolated positive cases,” on top of those found at Monican Hall dormitory, through last Saturday after the college tested nearly 4,500 people in the campus community. Among those positive cases, which weren’t believed to be connected to Monican, which was shuttered for cleaning after multiple students there tested positive, there were eight students who live on campus, three commuter students, and one college employee.
Last week, the college closed Monican, and had the students residing there quarantine elsewhere, after there were 17 positive cases identified within the prior week, according to an announcement from last Tuesday. By Thursday, another campus announcement said that number had risen by an additional 47 positive cases.
“What the Monican cluster has taught us is that COVID-19 is very complex and the impact can be swift and large,” the announcement of remote learning said. “Although we planned extensively for a temporary move to remote learning, and a potential outbreak of a campus cluster, the mental health of students, faculty and staff, and its impact is very difficult to plan for.”
Being designated higher risk does have repercussions for the town, though, even if the cases are contained within the college.
Lower-risk communities that have been lower-risk for the last three consecutive weeks will be able to move into part two of Phase 3 of the state’s reopening plan on Monday. North Andover, along with 28 others, will not be able to move into part two because of their higher-risk designation.
Hybrid schooling is continuing because town authorities have found out through contact tracing that the cases have not spread beyond the campus boundaries, according to a press release from officials.
“Through contact tracing, which includes interviews completed with every positive case by our public health nurses, we have determined that the Merrimack cases are currently isolated,” town Health Director Brian LaGrasse said in the release. “We will continue to monitor all positive cases and public health data to ensure that the cases remain isolated and our community is safe. This is not considered a threat to the North Andover Public Schools. Through constant and comprehensive testing, this was caught early and Merrimack College has followed all the appropriate protocols and guidance.”
Get Boston.com’s e-mail alerts:
Sign up and receive coronavirus news and breaking updates, from our newsroom to your inbox.
