BY: STAFF REPORT | BocaNewsNow.com
BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2021 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — The Palm Beach County School District starts the 2021-2022 school year today. With the new year comes a new COVID-19 tracker as last year’s tracker has been reset to zero.
It ended the 2020-2021 school year with 3,855 cases — more than 2,000 involving students.
There is tremendous concern that numbers within the school district this year will quickly skyrocket to exceptionally high levels, as parents have the option of “opting out” of the district wide mask mandate. There is no opt-out option, however, for teachers, employees and visitors to Palm Beach County School District buildings.
The school year starts amidst unprecedented levels of COVID-19 infection in the state and the greater Palm Beach County community. Director of Health for the Palm Beach County division of the Florida Department of Health, Dr. Alina Alonso, announced Monday that the local positivity rate is just shy of 17 percent.
Leaders of JFK Hospital in West Palm Beach said their hospital — the largest in Palm Beach County — is nearing critical condition due to the huge numbers of COVID-19 patients being treated.
