A preliminary report of COVID-19 cases in Polk public schools released Friday shows that 1,170 students and 297 staff have been reported as positive for the virus since Aug. 2. In addition, 8,228 students and 223 staff have quarantined after exposure to infected individuals.

“The figures are preliminary and do not include all cases impacting schools, because of delays in the reporting process,” the school district notes in a news release about the data, which includes school-by-school infection figures.

A new online dashboard designed to show more up-to-date COVID data is expected to go live in the coming week, the school district said.

View the current data

The 1,170 students reported positive breaks down to 826 confirmed cases and 344 unverified cases, according to the chart; the 297 staff members reported positive breaks down to 235 confirmed cases and 62 unverified cases.

According to the school district:

  • Confirmed cases are individuals with positive test results that have been confirmed by the Florida Department of Health’s Polk County office.
  • Unverified cases are individuals reported to have COVID-19, but have not been confirmed yet by FDOH-Polk.

LkldNow is unable to calculate the portion of enrollment these numbers represent because we could not find current Polk school district enrollment totals. If you know of a source for this information, please contact us.

Lakeland schools with the highest number of confirmed student cases are: Lake Gibson High, 28; George Jenkins, 26; Tenoroc, 26; Lawton Chiles, 18; Kathleen High, 16; Lakeland High, 15; Sikes, 15; Sleepy Hill Elementary, 15; Bruce Wagner, 15; and Kathleen Middle, 14.

Lakeland schools with the highest number of students quarantined are: George Jenkins, 355; Tenoroc, 351; Lawton Chiles, 297; and Lake Gibson High, 246.

The tabulation does not include data from charter schools “because PCPS only manages the traditional public schools in Polk County,” according to the news release.

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Barry Friedman founded Lkldnow.com in 2015 as the culmination of a career in print and digital journalism. Since 1982, he has used the tools of reporting, editing and content curation to help people in Lakeland understand their community better.

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