Broward School Board To Hold Emergency Meeting Friday On Face Coverings
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Back in November, the Broward school board voted to make masks optional for all students in schools and on Friday the board will meet to amend its face covering policy, but this will not apply to students.
In Miami-Dade masks also became optional for students in November but only if their parents opted them out.
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho tweeted out that the district will release a set of updated protocols before the end of this week, and that all district operations will resume on January 3.
"I can tell you in the medical community, specifically in pediatrics, we have not changed in our recommendations," says Dr. Lisa Gwynn, Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Public Health Sciences at the University of Miami. "We are seeing an increase in COVID cases in children and were seeing an increase in hospitalizations."
Dr. Gwynn says a very real concern for kids when it comes to the Omicron variant.
"If parents do not use send their kids to school with masks, the infection rates are just going to go higher and higher," says Dr. Gwynn.
At Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, they are seeing an uptick of pediatric covid-19 cases firsthand.
"Our numbers so far in December are similar to the numbers we saw when there was an uptick in august so a lot more than earlier this year," says Dr. Christopher Chang, Chief of Immunology at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital.
