TAMPA, Fla — Hundreds of coronavirus cases have been reported in Florida schools. That was according to documents released by the Florida Department of Health on Monday.
But a day later, that data was nowhere to be found.
10 investigates discovered the link to that data wasn't working early Tuesday morning and showed an error message when you went to the page. We reached out to the Florida Department of Health. It turns out, those reports were published by accident.
The Florida Department of Health sent 10 Investigates this email:
"The Schools and Daycares COVID-19 Surveillance Reports were in draft form and representative of an ongoing effort by the Department to publicly and transparently report case data associated with Florida’s schools and childcare facilities.
These draft reports were inadvertently made available on a Department archival site and not yet finalized. They remain under review as the Department verifies that data is accurately reflected. Once verified, this information will be made available in similar reports via www.FloridaHealthCOVID19.gov in the coming days and weeks.
The Department remains committed to public transparency and expeditiously providing the most up-to-date information available regarding COVID-19 in Florida."
- Alberto Moscoso/Florida Department of Health
The important take away from this, however, is the department of health is collecting this data, which is different from what they told us a few weeks back. We were told then that the state was not collecting that information.
The data that was released on August 24 shows:
In the last 2 weeks:
There have been 38 outbreaks, 559 cases, and 14 hospitalizations associated with elementary, middle and high schools in the state
Those hospitalizations only include children under the age of 18.
Between March 1 and Aug. 24, there have been 62 outbreaks, 1910 cases, 95 hospitalizations and two deaths
The DOH says when that data is confirmed and published, you will be able to find it by clicking here.
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