Coronavirus | Featured Stories

By Beth Stibal |

Florida records least COVID cases in the U.S., masks may come off in schools

Ron DeSantis
A protective face mask sits on the podium as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a news conference at the Urban League of Broward County, during the new coronavirus pandemic, Friday, April 17, 2020, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

As COVID-19 cases decline in the Sunshine state, South Florida schools may amend mask mandates.
In fact, Florida leads the nation with the least COVID-19 infections, according to the CDC COVID tracker.
Florida COVID
Other states with far more extreme pandemic restrictions are seeing COVID-19 continue to spread faster than Florida.
The rate of new cases in New York, for example, is more than double that of Florida’s at 25 per 100,000 residents over the past week.


Here in South Florida, Broward County Public Schools said it would revisit the mask mandate when the COVID-19 positivity rate stayed at 3 percent of lower for 10 consecutive days and county health department data shows that has happened.
The School Board expected to bring up the topic in a meeting Tuesday.
Currently, the School District of Palm Beach County is requiring all K-12 students to wear facial coverings inside school buildings and on school district transportation without the ability to opt out.
The only exceptions are for children with certain medical conditions.
Meanwhile Miami- Dade County Public schools is looking at several metrics including hospital admissions, community transmission and daily student cases.
Officials set Friday as a benchmark day to consider adjusting the policy on face-coverings.


And as the mask mandates are relaxed a possible vaccine mandate for children looms.
An FDA advisory board is meeting today to consider Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages five to eleven. But only 30% of parents say they’ll get their kids vaccinated right away.

The panel is evaluating Pfizer’s request to allow the shots for 28-million younger kids may make a decision on kid vaccines early next week.