FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Soaring COVID-19 infection rates in Florida have drawn concerns from medical experts and local school district leaders days before classes are set to resume.
Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean of the Baylor College of Medicine, spoke about the matter during a recent TV interview.
“I’m worried now that the schools are opening in this setting, and it’s going to be really tough keeping transmissions down,” he said. “We’re already seeing schools open up and then shutter and close in Arkansas and Mississippi because of this, so we have to be adults and step back in saying. ‘Hmm, what do we really want to do? What’s our goal here?'”
The Broward County School Board recently voted to keep their mandatory mask mandate in place ahead of the start of school.
“They’re standing up, and they know they need to protect students,” said Anna Fusco, president of the Broward Teachers Union.
President Joe Biden applauded their stand on masks. He called Broward County Public Schools Interim Superintendent Vickie Cartwright to commend her actions.
The school board’s decision came after the Florida Board of Education had threatened to withhold state money equivalent to the superintendent and board member salaries if they went through with the policy.
Meanwhile, in Miami-Dade, school officials haven’t yet announced that they’re going to do, but Miami-Dade Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho addressed the issue during a recent speech.
“There is no threat, at least to me, to my paycheck, to my salary that will force me to abdicate from doing the right thing,” he said.
Statewide, COVID-19 numbers remain high. In the past 24 hours, the state reported nearly 26,000 new cases, 27 deaths and more than 16,000 hospitalizations.
In an interview with CNN, City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez weighed in on the seriousness of those numbers.
“What we’ve seen in terms of the data is that this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” he said.
Suarez said the city has plenty of intensive care unit beds still available, but things are getting worse.
“We have an increase in new cases. We have an increase in our percent positivity rate, which at the beginning of the vaccine was very, very low,” he said.
On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended people with weakened immune systems to receive a COVID-19 booster shot.
Select CVS and Walgreens pharmacies plan to offer the the third Pfizer or Moderna shot.
For some, the pain is very real. Katrina Whittaker lost her friend, Pinewood Elementary School teacher Janice Wright, to COVID. She was 48 years old.
Wright was one three Broward County educators in their late 40s who died due to complications from the virus in a 24-hour period earlier this week. None of them were vaccinated.
“This is why I have been so adamant about every person in our school environment wearing a mask, because we continue to lose people,” said Dr. Rosalind Osgood, chair of the Broward County School Board.
The Broward Teachers Union will host a vaccination event for district employees on Tuesday at Coral Ridge Mall.
Anyone with questions and concerns about the coronavirus can call the Florida Department of Health’s 24-hour hotline at 1-866-779-6121.
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