FALL RIVER Five Fall River area school districts say they’re not interested, at least for the time being, in a new state pooled testing program that will bundle, or pool, weekly nose swabs of students and teachers being tested for COVID-19.
The voluntary program will provide weekly batch testing to groups of asymptomatic students and teachers as a means of encouraging more parents and guardians to send their kids back to the schoolhouse as opposed to remote learning.
Students who have been learning exclusively from home on a remote basis are also eligible to participate.
Gov. Charlie Baker announced the pooled testing strategy on Jan. 8. He described it as a collaborative effort between the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Department of Public Health.
Mayor Shaunna O Connell has confirmed a plan for it to be demolished next month.
The owner, Bill Thibeault, is undecided as to what will replace the mall, but O Connell said he is considering light industrial buildings such as warehousing and distribution.
O Connell said she is encouraging the owner to choose something that will bring more jobs to Taunton, and that although there is not a set timeline for a new use for the property, she believes it will move forward quickly. I do believe it will not be a drawn-out process, she said. They want to get the property developed, and we want to help them accomplish that as quickly as possible.
Before vaccinations became available in mid-December, Gov. Charlie Baker laid out a risk-based, three-phase plan that outlined where everyone in the state would fall on the governor s priority list, and rough estimates of when the vaccine phases will unfold.
The plan s architects were assisted by an advisory panel that included Rep. Ronald Mariano, who is now speaker of the House, and Sen. Cindy Friedman, a Spilka deputy who last session specialized in health care policy.
Health care workers dealing with COVID-19 patients and first responders were among the first to receive the the vaccine, followed by people who live or work in congregate care sites, such as jails and prisons, and Baker a few days ago fully opened the first phase, making home health workers and others in health care eligible.