Most Massachusetts kids have had COVID

Nearly three-fourths of Massachusetts children have had COVID-19, according to recent surveys from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Driving the news: The CDC estimates that 74% of Massachusetts children had COVID-19 antibodies as of June 25, based on testing of 628 blood samples.

• The agency believes that 80% of children nationwide have been infected at some point.

State of play: Massachusetts schools have loosened restrictions aimed at preventing COVID's spread in the classroom. At the same time, the BA.5 subvariant of Omicron has become the dominant strain in the U.S.

• BA.5 is the most transmissible version we've seen since the start of the pandemic, Axios' Tina Reed writes.

Of note: A group of public health experts, labor leaders and advocates are calling on state officials to consider mask mandates early on in a new surge, and to take other steps to prevent the disease's spread, per the State House News Service.

• Massachusetts does not seem keen on reimplementing any precautions, citing new CDC guidelines that no longer require people exposed to COVID-19 to quarantine.
• State officials told districts they are "not recommending universal mask requirements, surveillance testing of asymptomatic individuals" or other steps for the upcoming year, per SHNS.