Residents in Broward County, Florida, just north of Miami, are mourning the loss of three teachers and another worker with ties to the school system. All died from Covid in just 24 hours. These deaths come less than a week before school is set to begin. Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco said:

“Within a 24-hour span, we had an assistant teacher pass away, a teacher at her school pass away, an elementary teacher pass away and another teacher at a high school. It’s extremely frightening. I hear this every day. Whether it’s somebody in Broward or somebody throughout the state of Florida.”

CBS Miami reports, “The teachers, ironically, all dying around the same time Broward County’s School Board voted to defy Gov. DeSantis’ order to drop the mask mandate. Despite the dangers, the governor is sticking to his guns.”

All those who lost their lives were reportedly unvaccinated and in their 40s.

Rosalind Osgood, Chair of the Broward County School Board says:

“We’re in a very, very difficult moment in time. We’re losing people to COVID or having people get infected with COVID, and then having lifelong complications. Our district is using our so 2 funds to incentivize staff to get vaccinated, but there are a lot of people that have still not gotten the vaccination, and it is becoming a deadly thing for them not to be vaccinated, or it’s becoming very challenging where people are getting COVID and they’re living with lifelong complications. We have not opened schools yet, so that’s why the eight of us on our board are adamant that we cannot have people in schools without masks because we are living backlash of people dying with COVID.”

Watch more from CBS Miami above.