COVID-19 Cases On The Rise At Miami-Dade County Schools

Tiffany Razzano
·2 min read

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FL — Since schools reopened Jan. 3 following winter break, Miami-Dade County Schools has seen a significant rise in COVID-19 cases.

As of Thursday morning, 297 students have tested positive for coronavirus, while another 242 cases were reported among staff, according to the district’s COVID-19 dashboard.

COVID-19 cases have increased throughout Florida over the past month, thanks to the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant.

The state saw just shy of 400,000 new cases reported from Dec. 31 to Jan. 6 and a 31.2 percent new case positivity rate, according to weekly data from the Florida Department of Health.

During this same period in Miami-Dade County, 110,806 new cases and a 31.3 percent new case positivity rate were reported.

And these numbers are still going up. As of Wednesday, more than 11,000 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 in Florida, according to the Florida Hospital Association. The state also continues to report high daily numbers of coronavirus cases, including nearly 72,000 for Tuesday, data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.

The district revised its COVID-19 protocols, announcing the changes in a Dec. 30 news release ahead of schools reopening.

Starting Jan. 3, the district implemented the following protocols:

  • All district employees, volunteers, visitors, vendors, and contractors will be required to wear facial coverings while indoors at any school or facility.

  • Transportation employees will also be required to wear facial coverings while transporting children.

  • Facial coverings will not be mandated for students, but they will continue to be highly encouraged.

  • All spectators at school sporting events will be required to wear facial coverings.

Protocols for the enhanced sanitization and cleaning of classrooms and common areas, which were implemented at the beginning of the pandemic, will continue.

Self-isolation and quarantine protocols for students will also remain the same, the district said.

Prior to sending their children to school, parents and guardians are asked to complete the At-Home Daily Student Health Screening which can be found online here.

Parents of students who are home self-isolating or quarantining due to exposure to COVID-19 should contact their children’s teachers for makeup assignments and links for remote access via Teams or Zoom, the district said.

This article originally appeared on the Miami Patch