HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — As some Hillsborough County students head back to classrooms, the district on Monday launched its own COVID-19 dashboard.
The dashboard shows the total number of cases reported since July 31, how many have been confirmed each day and a breakdown of cases by school. It also differentiates between students and employees who have tested positive for coronavirus.
The district said the dashboard is updated every two hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. Check out the dashboard here.
By 6 p.m. Monday, there were six new COVID cases in the district, all of them students.
"Our priority is ensuring transparency as our learners head back to school," Superintendent Addison Davis said. "This data dashboard will be another tool to provide the most up to date information to our entire community."
Hillsborough students went back to school last week for all-remote learning to start the year. On Monday, those who opted for in-person learning returned to reopened school buildings.
A total of 109,452 Hillsborough students showed up for in-person learning on Aug. 31. All students and staff must wear face coverings on campus and the district has implemented COVID-19 protocols every step of the way including sanitation stations in classrooms, one-way hallways, and handwashing breaks.
"This is not the way we planned to open our schools but there will be new organizational controls," Davis said.
Another 94,143 students opted to go the E-Learning route for the first semester. Valerie Chuchman is a chemistry teacher at Riverview High School. She feels fortunate to have been assigned a virtual position.
"I’m going to have to be creative. I’m going to do the best I can so this experience is engaging for my students," Chuchman said.
Hillsborough isn't the only one to launch an online system to communicate coronavirus cases to employees and families. Polk, Pasco and Citrus county districts have also launched dashboards for COVID-19 in schools.
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