Florida is leading the country in new COVID cases this week and the Palm Beach County school board is deciding which COVID measures to enforce and which ones to eliminate during the upcoming school year.

FAU

FAU currently has three active COVID-19 cases, all of which are students on the Boca Raton campus. These cases bring the total number of cases throughout the Summer 2021 semester to 11.

Students that received the Pfizer vaccine at the Palm Beach County Healthcare District Mobile Vaccine Unit on campus on June 25 can return on July 9 between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. to have their second dose administered. 

PALM BEACH COUNTY

Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner announced that he has no plans to continue any COVID-19 emergency orders.

“After reviewing data on a regular basis, and in consultation with the county administrator, I have no present intent on executing any further emergency orders related to COVID,” Kerner said in a press release earlier this week.

Though for Palm Beach County schools, some features from the pandemic will become permanent. 

The PBC School Board will vote on a number of propositions for the 2021-22 school year. These include virtual school being exclusive to Palm Beach Virtual and Florida Virtual, optional face coverings, and touchless lunch checkout starting in October.

As of June 25, PBC averaged 69 new COVID-19 cases daily with 46% of the population fully vaccinated, according to the New York Times.

STATE-WIDE

Florida is averaging 1,543 new COVID-19 cases and 36.7 deaths daily as of June 25, according to the New York Times. Forty-four percent of the population is fully vaccinated. 

With these statistics, Florida is the leading state for new daily cases in the United States.

Kendall Little is the Managing Editor for the University Press. For more information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet her @klittlewrites.