Wellesley Schools Pause Winter Sports Amid COVID-19 Surge

WELLESLEY, MA — Amid rising COVID-19 case numbers and growing concerns of contacting the fast-paced omicron variant, Wellesley Public Schools will suspend all winter sports until further notice.

The school district made the announcement Wednesday with the Wellesley Health Department during the school's Christmas break, adding that there is "a major increase of cases on our athletic teams."

"This means no in-person practices, games, meets or competitions," the district said in a bulletin to students and faculty.

Over the past two weeks, Wellesley public schools have had 49 positive tests reported, with more than half of the cases being reported at the high school, according to the Wellesley public school district COVID-19 dashboard.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health says Wellesley has an overall vaccination rate of 78 percent, with greater than 95 percent of kids between the ages of 12 to 15 vaccinated and 58 percent of teenagers between 16 and 19 fully vaccinated.

Pausing all athletics puts Wellesley with Boston Public Schools, who last week said they would stop games and practices in response to high rates of positive COVID-19 cases.

Wellesley public schools says this pause will remain in effect until further notice.

"We understand that this news is unexpected and disappointing," the school said in a statement. "We will work to notify all the schools on your schedules and reschedule games where possible."