Palm Beach County, FL, one of the first districts in the state to start school, is reporting 14 employees and 37 students have tested positive for COVID-19:
Palm Beach County schools, just three days into the new school year, has already reported 51 cases of COVID-19 as of 10 a.m. Thursday; 14 employees and 37 students. pic.twitter.com/Z54nCG7BKR
— Austen Erblat (@AustenErblat) August 12, 2021
To put things into perspective, there are 167,000 students in the district:
Just got an update from the school district. 167k in district-operated schools.
— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) August 12, 2021
This does not include charter schools, however:
CORRECTION: District has roughly 167,000 kids in district operated schools.
The quarantine number also only refers to district schools and omits charter schools.
H/t @BrianEntin
— Jay O'Brien (@jayobtv) August 12, 2021
There are also 440 students in quarantine and only 5000 out of the 167,000 — 3% — opted out of wearing masks (Palm Beach County 2020 election results — Biden: 55.97%, Trump: 43.21%):
UPDATE: 3 days since school started in Palm Beach County, Florida and 440 students have been in quarantine because of COVID.
There are 51 confirmed cases.
About 5000 students chose to opt out of wearing masks. (out of around 175,000 students.) https://t.co/pgpY1Ot5U8— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) August 12, 2021
FWIW, every photo the district has shared on Twitter includes plenty of masked students and teachers:
Superintendent Burke, School Board Member Marcia Andrews, the mayors of Belle Glade and South Bay and other community leaders welcomed students at Glades Central HS#YourTimeToShinePBC pic.twitter.com/0VFztK1Ir2
— The School District of Palm Beach County (@pbcsd) August 10, 2021
The 440 in quarantine includes “anything from exhibiting symptoms to merely coming in contact with someone COVID positive”:
So… it’s a bit of a roundabout.
Dept of Health decides which kids quarantine. Their criteria includes anything from exhibiting symptoms to merely coming in contact with someone COVID positive.
37 students and 14 employees are confirmed COVID positive since start of school.
— Jay O'Brien (@jayobtv) August 12, 2021
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