In March of 2020, COVID-19 made its appearance in the United States. It was something that everyone was expecting to come for two weeks and then leave like every other yearly virus. Well, we thought wrong.  

   COVID cases had begun to settle down up until a few weeks ago. Santa Rosa County and the City of Gulf Breeze have been heavily hit by the newest Delta Variant. The Delta Variant is a more serious case of the disease that had already come to our county.  

   Santa Rosa county and the city of Gulf Breeze have had a lot of COVID cases. In total, Santa Rosa County has had 26,301 cases so far. The state of Florida has had over 3 million cases. This virus is a serious problem state and country wide. There are so many places that are struggling with the outcomes of COVID and are suffering from this terrible disease.  

   Quarantines have been a frequent event happening over the past few weeks at our school. Many kids have been getting sent home and have had to rely on Teams to get assignments from teachers. The hard part about quarantine is having to keep up with all the other students even though you are not physically sitting in class with them. Also, major tests and quizzes are missed, which puts you behind all your other peers.  

   There are a few things you should consider with this virus. First, if you don’t feel well, stay home from school. If you have the virus, you could easily spread it to someone else. Second, wash your hands and use hand sanitizer. This will help keep all the germs away. Third, cough and sneeze into your elbow. Do not do this action towards another person or student. These 3 steps will not just magically make the virus disappear, but it could help dwindle the possibility of sickness down. 

   There are so many ways we can help our community fight against this virus, and we are doing all that we can to stay healthy and safe. Just keep these tips in mind the next time you are feeling under the weather. We need to keep this variant out of our town and keep the gate closed to any other viruses out there. We are sick and tired (literally) of this virus messing with our lives. Let’s work hard to keep our peers healthy and work harder to keep COVID away.