Palm Beach County School District Expected To Keep Mask Mandate In Place For Weeks, Possibly Months.
School System Announces Policy As Pro-COVID Spreaders Sue Again Over School Mask Mandate.
BY: COVID DESK | BocaNewsNow.com
BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2021 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — The Palm Beach County School Board will only permit masks to be “optional” for students when vaccines are available for the youngest students and the positivity rate remains low for a continued period of time.
At the school board meeting Wednesday, district officials said a COVID vaccine must be available for children five and up, the weekly positivity rate in Palm Beach County must spend more than four week weeks below eight percent, and the average number of new cases — on a weekly basis — must remain below 50 per 100,000 residents for four weeks.
While a vaccine for children 5 and up is widely expected to get the green light within weeks, the new case count remains a problem. Palm Beach County is averaging more than 160 new cases per week, per 100,000 residents.
The good news: numbers are dropping quickly. If current trends continue, it is conceivable that the mask mandate may be amended to “mask optional” by the end of the calendar year. Officials, however, said it would return if numbers started to rise.
As of Thursday morning, The Palm Beach County School District reported 6,177 confirmed COVID-19 cases — with 5,333 students and 844 employees testing positive.
