Weekly COVID Update 6/4: COVID cases continue to decrease, Florida schools update student retention policy

Updates from May 28 through June 4 regarding COVID-19 at FAU, Palm Beach County, and Florida.

Photo courtesy of Hakan Nural via Unsplash.

Kendall Little, Managing Editor
June 4, 2021

The state of Florida and Palm Beach County are currently experiencing new lows in COVID-19 cases. Now, school systems in Florida are deciding how to proceed with students who experienced setbacks due to the pandemic. 

FAU

FAU currently has three active COVID-19 cases between two campuses, Boca Raton and Davie. Two of the cases are students and one is an employee.

Data courtesy of FAU.

 

PALM BEACH COUNTY

The seven-day average of COVID-19 cases in Palm Beach County has dipped below 100 as of June 3.

Graph courtesy of the New York Times.

Vaccination rates continue to increase in the county with 14,888 more people becoming fully vaccinated this week. The new total of people in PBC fully vaccinated is 749,116 as of June 3, according to the county COVID-19 vaccine summary.

The School District of Palm Beach County will be offering Pfizer vaccines at four locations starting on June 5.

According to WPTV, “The school board unanimously approved a partnership with the Health Care District of Palm Beach County to set up vaccination sites on school property around the county.”

 

STATE-WIDE

The weekly average of COVID-19 cases in Florida decreased significantly from last week. The new seven-day average is 1,631 whereas last week’s was 2,284.

Graph courtesy of the Florida Department of Health.

10,397,299 Floridians are fully vaccinated as of June 3, according to the state vaccine summary.

Florida lawmakers approved what is known as a “COVID slide,” which allows kindergarten through fifth-grade students to be held back by their parents. 

“Parents are required to submit requests in writing to principals, specifying ‘the academic reasons for the retention.’Principals and teachers would be required to discuss with parents reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with retaining students. They could also choose to create ‘customized’ one-year education plans for the students instead of using retention,” according to News 4 Jax.

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.