LYNNFIELD — Yet another setback in the town’s efforts to get ahead of the pandemic has caused Lynnfield to hit the pause button.
The latest coronavirus curveball came last week when the town learned that a 3rd grader participating in youth sports had tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the number of new cases over a two-day period to eight and the number of cases over the last eight days through last Thursday to 15.
The discovery prompted a swift and immediate response from town leaders, who shut down all youth sports programs for a minimum of two weeks.
“We worked very hard to keep things as normal as possible, but what we’ve seen over the last few days is very concerning,” Town Administrator Rob Dolan said at Thursday’s Select Board meeting. “The impact of one positive test on a youth team is this could take out an entire team from school activities. In this case, one positive test resulted in nine teammates also having to quarantine. That’s 10 kids not going to school. While a difficult decision, we feel kids being in school is our only priority.”
The Recreation Department posted a joint statement on its website late Friday afternoon, signed by Dolan, School Superintendent Kristen Vogel, Fire Chief and Emergency Management Team Director Glenn Davis and Recreation Commision Chairman Rich Sjoberg. The statement said this is the first time the town has identified “potential exposure to cases through participation in youth sports activities (and) with school in session, our top priority must be preserving our hybrid education model to ensure that our children continue to receive the benefit of in-person instruction.”
Dolan said that the “difficult decision” stems more from the need to “catch up and identify how wide the potential spread is in youth sports,” as opposed to the detection of a single case. While Lynnfield’s risk level has dropped to green, he’s concerned that the number of red communities has risen to 63 state-wide, a feeling shared by Davis.
“For weeks, we’ve stated this is only a Lynnfield problem, but now we are seeing this throughout the state. The number of high-risk communities has increased dramatically over the last couple of weeks,” he said. “This increase reinforces the need to continue doing the things we are doing, like wearing masks, observing social distancing, keeping gatherings small and not sharing food or utensils. We need to continue being very vigilant.”
Dolan said that people need to be honest if contacted by a contact tracer.
“There’s almost a sense of shame if you are identified (as a spreader), but anyone can get coronavirus,” Dolan said. “We now have a backlog of contact tracing as it’s a time-consuming process, but our responsibility is to provide full disclosure.”
Sjoberg said he appreciates the strong support received from Lynnfield’s sports organizations.
“I’m proud of the way each league has handled the guidelines regarding playing in Phase 3, however, we did see a pocket of cases coming from youth sports a weekend ago, which changed everything,” he said. “We all came to the same conclusion that it was more important to prioritize kids being in school as opposed to an hour or so of being on a ballfield.”
Within hours of the announcement, youth leagues began posting statements on their websites.
Lynnfield Youth Soccer Club’s post said this has “nothing to do with how we restructured or executed our sessions.”
Lynnfield Little League, which had decided Oct. 15 to play through Oct. 18, reversed its decision Oct. 16, saying, “We received new information this evening and no longer believe we can provide a safe environment for players.”
Lynnfield Flag Football announced all games through Oct. 17 were canceled. Earlier this fall, Lynnfield Youth Basketball canceled its in-town program after school gyms were deemed off-limits to youth sports. In contrast, the Saugus Lynnfield Stars Hockey League has not paused its programs, but Sjoberg said the league is permitting Lynnfield players to opt out if they so choose.
Select Board Chairman Chris Barrett understands the frustration this decision likely will cause.
“As an administrator, this is the right step to preserve the hybrid model that we worked so hard to get,” he said. “It’s been a bumpy road, but this is going to put us in jeopardy again if we don’t do this. As a parent, I share the angst that upset parents feel.”
