Seven schools in Massachusetts have achieved an 80% vaccination rate and a waiver from mask rules from the state education department. But for other schools, masks remain mandatory. That rule expires on November 1.
Education Commissioner Jeff Riley says he expects to announce a decision early this week on whether to extend the mask rule for schools.
Matt Murphy of the State House News Service joins us to discuss what that announcement could entail.
Matt Murphy, State House News Service: Some of the experts the administration has leaned on did raise some questions last week about whether or not this is the time.
Even Commissioner Riley noted that some of the schools that got the waiver because they reached 80% vaccination status have not yet lifted their own school mask mandates. The additional applications for schools that achieved that threshold are being reviewed for external factors, such as community spread.
All of these things are getting weighed right now, and some experts are questioning whether November 1 is the right time to lift it, or if the state should stick with the masks a little longer in schools, especially as we're seeing the vaccine push getting off the ground for kids roughly kindergarten through those middle grades.
Carrie Healy, NEPM: Massachusetts officials say they've preordered some 360,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses for kids ages 5 to 11. Those will begin arriving in the state this week, even though there isn't yet federal approval to give kids the shots. What's the plan?
The state is preparing, working with health care providers. They expect there will be close to 300 health care providers administering this shot, and that will be supplemented with clinics available at pharmacies. The state will step in with mobile vaccination efforts, as well as helping to run school clinics with local boards of health.
All told, Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders said last week in an oversight hearing, they expect more than 700 locations to be up and running, where kids will be able to get this shot once it gets approved. Those 360,000 doses are expected to arrive no later than November 5. The state wants to be ready to get this underway and the secretary is hoping to push as many of those doses out the door as fast as possible.
Massachusetts labor officials Friday released the latest state jobs figures for September. The unemployment rate rose from 5% in August to 5.2% in September. Construction, professional services, government all shed positions last month, but it seems like in many places in western Massachusetts, there are still help wanted signs up in retail stores and restaurants and everywhere. Are you hearing anything from lawmakers about how to get the jobs figures back to pre-pandemic levels?
There's a lot of different things going on, and people trying to understand what it is. On the one hand, you do hear lawmakers talking about how this is a private sector issue. They want to be supportive, but in questions of retail and jobs, it's a little up in the air on why people are not taking these jobs.
To the extent possible that the state can help fill other more technical, skilled labor positions for people — for instance, who maybe don't want to go back to that job in a restaurant, in a kitchen cooking, they're looking for something else — the state is looking to put money into job training programs, skilling these people up for jobs in lab spaces, advanced manufacturing, and plants like that. We are expecting this week to hear more about the Legislature's plan to invest. We'll see how far they go towards investing in these workforce development programs.
