Orange official: No infections from schools

Students, staff under quarantine after possible exposure

More than 100 students and staff of Orange County Public Schools are under quarantine after possible exposure to one of the 36 students or staff who tested positive for COVID-19, a health official said Thursday afternoon.

Dr. Raul Pino, health officer for the Florida Department of Health in Orange County, said his staff hasn’t yet found evidence of the virus being transmitted on school campuses and the 21 students and 15 staff with the virus likely picked it up elsewhere since schools have been in face-to-face sessions for less than a week.

“We’re investigating a few cases to make sure that hasn’t happened,” Pino said. “Most of these cases, probably, were acquired in the community.”

The affected schools are: East River High School, John Young Elementary School, Lakeview Middle School, Piedmont Lakes Middle School and College Park Middle School.

The health department is using classroom seating charts to determine who may have been exposed to someone with the virus, particularly those who have come within six feet, and who needs to stay home in quarantine for 14 days.

Though in one instance, where a seating chart couldn’t be obtained, an entire class was quarantined.

“Each situation will require a different approach,” he said. “We want to be as surgical as possible, but at the same time, aggressive.”

Pino noted that in other states and towns that opened schools earlier than Orange County, school closures because of virus spread tended to come around the third week.

Orange started face-to-face classes on Aug. 21. He said his staff will consult with the school district if they establish transmission of the virus is occurring at a school.

The Seminole County school district, which opened on Aug. 17, said at least 175 people — most of them students — were in quarantine after 21 students and four staff members at 17 public schools tested positive for the coronavirus.

Overall, new cases of COVID-19 are trending down in Central Florida, with 5.2% of tests returning positive Wednesday in Orange County. In mid-June, single day positivity rates were at least three times higher some days.

Visits to the emergency room and hospital admissions for symptoms of the virus also remain on the decline.

Since Monday the county received confirmation of eight more coronavirus-related deaths, Pino said, for a total of 369 since March.

Pino also urged people who have been exposed to the virus get tested, saying he disagreed with a change this week in CDC guidelines, which stated some close contacts of a person with the coronavirus “do not necessarily need a test.” Previously, the agency has said everybody exposed to the virus should be tested.

“We do disagree with the announcement itself, but as a principle, we haven’t tested every single contact,” he said. “We highly suggest that people who were in contact with a positive person get tested.”

Orange County also opened its $20 million eviction diversion program this week in hopes of preventing at least 5,000 evictions amid the economic downturn caused by the pandemic.

So far, the county has received 1,223 applications from tenants, as well as 364 landlords. In order for the county to pay out money, both a landlord and tenant must properly fill out paperwork.

So far the county has 37 tenantlandlord pairs in the system.

The program is designed to pay up to $4,000 in past due rent, and checks could be delivered in as soon as three weeks if paperwork is filled out timely, said Roseann Harrington, chief of staff to Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings.