On Wednesday night, Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) Superintendent Alberto Carvalho touched on the topic of institutional reopening during a School Board meeting. The possibility of opening doors to students and teachers appears minimal as it largely piggybacks off COVID-19 numbers, according to Carvalho.
Having approved the mandatory social distancing plans of wearing masks, keeping a safe distance, and sporting smaller classes in spacious divisions earlier back in July 1st, School Board officials initially skewed in favor of on-campus learning. Yet, Carvalho had once more reinstated the priority and welfare of students in yesterday’s meeting.
“Our priority is the safety and health and well-being of our students, our teachers or support staff and the community,” he said to CBS4.
Initially asserting the affirmation of reopening when the county hits phase 2, many questioned this conviction and the extent to which the government will twist this notion in a rush to open schools. In response, Carvalho denoted a list of measures that MDCPS must undergo before allowing education to safely ensue on campus.
There are eight criteria to fulfill so far.
First is a downward trajectory of COVID-19 positivity with a rate of less than 10%, trending toward 5%, within a 14-day period. Clashing with the national census, however, Florida’s Department of Health confirmed an additional 14,000 cases today, the second-highest climax in a single day since the pandemic first took an upsurge back in March. Miami remains the crowned hotspot.
A steady reduction in the number of hospitalized individuals is another set target. Hospitals in South Florida are currently flooded with victims of the coronavirus as of now — and while the documented cases reach a new high every other day, the number of patients can only fill facilities to the brim.
School Board officials also called for sustaining a reduction in ICU bed occupancy. Data from Florida’s Agency For HealthCare Administration shows that less than 25% of beds in intensive care units are available for use across the entire state. Although it isn’t clear what is causing the shortages as most patients coming into hospitals arrive without severe symptoms that require ventilators, the director of infection prevention at UF Health, Chad Neilson, told News4Jax.
Another standard is aimed toward a continuous low viral burden for 14 days with a decline in virus-positive individuals. Unlike the very first criteria, which references the lower rates of positivity, this regards the quantity of the virus throughout the regional population. A low viral load contributes significantly to the abrupt rise and steady reduction of documented cases.
An increase in viral-specific COVID-19 test availability with decreased wait time. The wait time for test results directly hinders a proper course of action. The ‘current’ all-time highs that have been taking the wheels lately is nearly a week out of date from the extended number of cases that are present now.
The turnaround time for test results should amount to less than 48 hours. Testing capacity is on the rise in Florida, but so are the number of individuals that are getting tested. The escalating demands for COVID-19 molecular diagnostic testing is an active component slowing down the speed at which one receives their results — and the viral census falls behind resultantly.
Increasing the quality and quantity of contact tracing to develop preventative measures. Contact tracing is a preventative initiative and a form of disease control that healthcare workers use to get in touch with everyone an infected patient has gotten in close contact with. It plays an important role in controlling infectious diseases, especially during a global health crisis.
The final benchmark is to ensure vaccinations for school-aged children. At a time where children and families are rendered at home, many parents have yet to take their children for vaccines and immunizations, according to the Miami Superintendent. As such, the district is working to raise awareness across Miami-Dade County.
Unfortunately, MDCPS is far from achieving the standards of these eight denotations.
“Based on where we are today, we don’t meet the criteria,” Alberto Carvalho told the Herald. “It is difficult to predict where we’ll be on Aug. 24.”
On Tuesday, he stated that the school district acquired 207,000 responses, and out of the masses, 50% were in favor of sending kids back to school while another 49% vouched for transitioning to eLearning entirely. In the end, the locally elected school boards are to decide the finality of whether or not schools will reopen.
Parents are set to be informed as to what model will prevail through the school year by July 27th, however, the date can be extended. Carvalho is giving until August 10 to make a solidified decision about classes so that students, teachers, and faculty have enough time to prepare.
