School districts post COVID dashboards for first week of school
LAKE MARY, Fla. - The COVID dashboard is up for week one at Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) with just a fraction of Orange County students and staff testing positive for coronavirus.
The district reports 442 confirmed cases. To put that in perspective, there are around 206,000 students and 25,000 staff members, which means just .19% of the district population has gotten the virus.
Other counties also published dashboards on Friday.
In Seminole County, the district reported 84 staff and student cases within the last 10 days. A majority of the cases were reported at elementary schools in the district. You can view the Seminole COVID dashboard here.
Brevard Public Schools reported 473 positive cases and up to 1,060 quarantines due to possible exposure to COVID-19; however, the district clarified that there was a lag in reporting from the county and those numbers reflect cases that were reported prior to the start of school on Aug. 10. A revised count showed that there were 385 cases for the first week of classes. You can view the Brevard COVID dashboard here (PDF).
Lake County reported 115 positive cases for the first week of school, including 59 students and 56 staff. The county also reported that 571 students had been quarantined. You can view the Lake COVID dashboard here.
OCPS officials say they’re encouraging anyone eligible to get the vaccine to do so, requiring employees and visitors to wear masks and stressing that kids should wear them too.
There’s still a lot of school year to go, and the district will continue to update the dashboard numbers.
The Orange County teacher’s union says at the start of this school year, there has been some confusion about policy when it comes to people getting sick at school. The district sent out a memo trying to clear some of that up Friday.
Among the highlights, students with COVID can come back when they have no symptoms and a negative test. Also, students with a doctor’s note can return to school.
The memo is below. Mobile users can read the full memo here (PDF).
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