Orange County Public Schools Superintendent Barbara Jenkins is asking Governor Ron DeSantis to include teachers, and administrative and classified school district employees on his list of priority groups for COVID-19 vaccines in a Thursday, December 17, letter to him.
“While you continue to develop subsequent distribution plans, we respectfully request that you include K-12 essential school district employees who are in direct contact with students (instructional, classified and administrative) on your list of priority groups,” the letter reads. “Access to the vaccines for this group would permit school districts to continue providing quality instruction for students as well as critical support services to our most vulnerable families.”
The letter acknowledged “one of your most challenging decisions will be how to allocate the state’s share of the vaccines to its citizens.”
“It is our understanding that the Department of Health has, under your leadership, convened a vaccination planning workgroup which has made several recommendations regarding the initial distribution of the vaccines to the citizens of Florida,” the letter states. “These recommendations include collaborating with other governmental agencies and private partners to distribute the initial doses to areas with a high concentration of long-term care facilities as well as distributing doses to certain hospitals to vaccinate healthcare workers.”
Jenkins spoke at the Thursday, December 17, Orange County news conference updating the public on COVID-19. There, she advised anyone who has symptoms of, has been exposed to, or tested positive for COVID-19 over OCPS’s winter break, to stay home until cleared to return.
Friday, December 18 is the last day of school for OCPS before winter break. School restarts for students on Tuesday, January 5, with the second semester.
On Monday, December 14, OCPS reported 90 positive cases – the highest number to date in one day for the school district. That brings the number to over 2,000 positive cases since schools opened, “which in general considering 200,000 students, is remarkable,” Jenkins said. “However, we’re deeply concerned that those numbers are growing.”
In January, OCPS expects 20,000 students returning face-to-face for the second semester. When school reopens in January, all COVID-19 safety measures will remain in place, Jenkins said.
OCPS will have a COVID-19 notification link on its homepage at www.ocps.net to report any student or staff with a positive case over the winter break. Those reports will help the school system navigate a safe return for the second semester.
Regarding the change in quarantine timeframes, OCPS is now using the 10-day criteria, which was reduced from the 14-day as recommended by the Florida Department of Health.
This week, AdventHealth became one of the first hospitals in Florida to begin administering the long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine. The hospital received its first shipment of about 20,000 Pfizer vaccines on Tuesday, December 15, and started inoculating frontline staff at the Orlando and Celebration campuses on Wednesday, December 16.
AdventHealth Apopka will be among the locations around Florida that will receive Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.
DeSantis announced on December 16 that Florida is expected to receive 367,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine next week, pending Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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