The town is going through a surge of COVID cases, Hopkinton Health Director Shaun McAuliffe told the Board of Health on Monday.

“All of our metrics are going upward,” McAuliffe said. “The state’s reporting that our positivity rate is above 8.4 [percent positive of those tested]. I would argue it’s a lot higher.”

McAuliffe said at least 39 people wrote to him notifying that someone in their family had tested positive over the past few days, and Public Health Nurse Simone Carter noted that more notifications came in Monday.

McAuliffe categorized Hopkinton High School’s recent junior prom as a “superspreader.” The senior prom is scheduled for Friday.

“What I’ve been doing is working with the DPH [Department of Public Health] and DESE [Department of Elementary and Secondary Education], and it looks like they are going to start providing new guidance on Omicron, regarding guidance on how do you safely operate a prom, or how do you manage final exams in the time of Omicron BA.2 or its sub-variants,” he said. “If they do that and follow through, that will take a load off of the department.”

Added McAuliffe: “The only other thing to really note is Fairview Estates is in ‘corporate lockdown’ because they have so many cases there.”

“But we continue to move forward,” Board of Health Chair Lisa Whittemore interjected. “It’s a little scary, but we’re continuing to move forward. It’s more about the management than the shutting down.”

McAuliffe noted that it’s the state’s job to provide the guidance, and the whole region is in the same boat.

“We are just working with all of our different partners in town to help navigate this moving forward,” he said. “Little League is still open. They are a great partner. We communicate weekly. We put together simple strategies to help them continue to move forward and provide kids that release, parents that release.”

On a related note, McAuliffe indicated there has been a spike in flu cases.