While all governments have placed a lot of emphasis on children returning to school – sometimes even using bullying tactics (US) – the fact remains that schools are potentially hotspots for virus transmission. According to a recent British Medical Journal article and chart (below) there are ways to reduce the rate of infection by taking some simple steps: “opening windows, requesting that students wear face masks in classrooms as well as in busy corridors when necessary, and making sure that large groups of students don’t spend long periods of time together will all make a difference”. It is naive political expediency to think that once schools are open and children back in classrooms that a goal has been achieved. The truth is that it has only just begun. As the Guardian article comments, currently in the UK “there is no plan to track or contain outbreaks as they occur in schools, from where they can spread to local communities, potentially at the cost of lives”. There needs to be guidelines and strict instructions of what to do if local area infections go beyond a certain level. A lack of advice will cause much more chaos and health problems. Let’s hope other country governments prepare and inform schools better.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/07/kids-school-covid-19-infections