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Today’s the day the Palm Beach County School District is mandating masks for all students attending classes. Approximately 12,000 parents had opted their children out of wearing masks prior to today. Today’s also the first day of school in Miami-Dade, which like Broward, begins its school year with a mandatory mask policy in place.
Meanwhile, the trial challenging the state’s ban on mask mandates without a parental opt-out begins in Tallahassee today as Leon County Circuit Court Judge John Cooper will preside over a suit brought by parents attempting to throw out the Florida Board of Education’s rule mandating parental choice. The trial is currently scheduled through Wednesday.
Florida ended last week with a three-day decline in the weekly trend for new COVID-19 cases. Entering this week, Florida averaged 20,134 new daily COVID-19 cases, about 1,600 daily cases lower than the recent pandemic high. Moreover, COVID-19 hospitalizations remain near peak levels with 17,253 Floridians hospitalized as of Sunday. Last week was the deadliest during the pandemic in Florida. 1,486 deaths were attributed to COVID-19.