21 Orange County students, 15 employees test positive for COVID-19

ORANGE COUNTRY, Fla. – Orange County Public Schools has documented COVID-19 cases involving at least 21 students and 15 staff.

OCPS on Wednesday night released the first list of affected campuses, which contained only 21 confirmed cases.

“Preliminary data indicate that as of Friday, August 21, Orange County Public Schools has 21 lab confirmed cases. Of the 21 confirmed cases, only 13 students at 11 schools were on campus,” a spokesman wrote in an email. According to (the Department of Health) there are no school-based broadcasts at this point. Rather, they are community-based events. ”

During a news conference on Thursday, Orange County officials said additional cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed, for a total of 21 students who tested positive for the novel coronavirus and 15 employees.

The list released on Wednesday showed that the first 13 students affected by the virus on campus were at the following 11 schools:

• John Young Elementary
• College Park Middle
• Elementary from Sunset Park
• East River High School
• Lakeview Middle School
• Piedmont Lakes Middle School
• Rock Springs Elementary School
• Spring Lake Elementary School
• Ocoee Middle School
• Northlake Park Elementary School
• University High School

The first eight employees at the school worked at the following eight schools:

• Southwestern High School
• Keene’s Crossing Elementary School
• Bonneville Elementary School
• Lake Como K-8 School
• Lakeville Elementary School
• Clay Springs Elementary School
• Pineloch Elementary School
• Spring Lake Elementary School

OCPS officials said as of Thursday afternoon, 117 people had been asked to be quarantined as a precaution.

During Thursday’s news conference, Dr. Raul Pino of the Florida Department of Health on the Difference Between Isolation and Quarantine. According to Pino, one comes into isolation because they have tested positive for the virus. Quarantine is for those who may have had contact with a case but have not tested positive.

“So isolation are individuals who have been confirmed as positive and confirmed as positive means that we have found a record of a positive test in our system that has been reported to the state or we have a paper copy of a positive result. That the person is placed in isolation to prevent another from becoming infected. That is isolation, “said Pino.” Then you have quarantine. Quarantine is an individual that you have not been diagnosed with symptoms. But you think … you believe they were exposed and then you quarantine that individual for a period of time. “

Pino said so far, public health officials have not received any reports of secondary transfers within schools, meaning most of the confirmed cases were likely taken over in the community, according to Pino.

“Secondary transmission is when someone who has already transmitted the disease to another person, in this case, in the school system. “Now we are investigating in some cases to make sure that this has not happened, but we have no evidence that this has happened in our school system,” said Pino.

He added that the county is busy getting 1,000 quick tests, hopefully for new week, which will be used to test students in certain cases.

On Monday, Pino said 12 OCPS employees had tested positive over the past two months for the fatal respiratory problems, including two bus drivers who were in contact with students.

He also said that 207 children between the ages of 5 and 18 have tested positive in the past two weeks, although OCPS Superintendent Dr. Barbara Jenkins explained that these children are not all students of public schools.

About 69,000 Orange County students decided to return to campus for the semester instead of continuing online learning. Her first day back in physical class was Friday.

Also on Wednesday, the Florida Education Association – the state’s largest teachers’ union, which is currently involved in a school reopening lawsuit – launched its own dashboard to track COVID-19 cases associated with schools.

Citing data from the Florida Department of Health, which lists dashboards since Aug. 8, found 8,995 cases in people 18 and under, when schools in the state first began releasing students.

Last week, in response to a separate FEA lawsuit, OCPS released a list of all work sites that had COVID-19 cases all summer. Between June 1 and August 19, 192 employees tested positive.

In neighboring Seminole County, at least 179 people have been asked to quarantine because of possible exposure to the coronavirus since the semester began on August 17th.

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