Yesterday, 1,887 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Florida. The state’s weekly trend for cases is the lowest since June 27th. Furthermore, 69 fewer Floridians are hospitalized with COVID-19 today. Entering Thursday 2,254 Floridians were hospitalized with the virus, the lowest since early July.
Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson said he anticipates a special session will take place in November. This comes about a week after Governor DeSantis called for a special session to take up legislation aimed at preventing Florida’s workers from being fired due to a federal vaccine mandate.
Lastly, the Florida Department of Education has ignored threats issued by the US Department of Education regarding financial penalties imposed for local school districts who’ve imposed mask mandates without parental opt-outs. The state has once again withheld funding equal to the salaries of school board members in the Alachua School District, in addition to an amount equal to the total the federal government sent directly to the school district to offset the state’s sanctions. Sanctions for other offending school districts, including Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach County appear likely to continue. While Broward voted to relax the mask mandate for high school students effective next Monday, they decided to leave them in place for elementary and middle schools.