Schools re-opening

In South Korea, children eat their lunches in silence, facing plastic screens that separate them from their friends. They wear masks, except when practising social distancing in the playground. And their temperatures are checked twice every morning; first at home and again at the school gates.

According to an article in the science journal, Nature, this could be the new reality for the millions of children around the world.

According to the study, schools can be high-risk places for spread of COVID-19. Children are often crammed into poorly ventilated rooms for eight hours or more, and there is a lot of mixing, because children, teachers, and other school staff come from across the neighbourhood, some on public transport, and often with their parents.

Although, in earlier analysis it appeared that the virus might affect children differently from adults, scientists have now confirmed that children can spread the virus to other people, especially those living in the same household.

The report says the key is vigilance on hygiene and physical distancing, a swift public-health response to halt the spread of any infections and, most crucially, low levels of viral spread in the community. The researchers say that if schools are opened before community transmission reaches low levels, cases will surge.

The school environment can also increase the risk of further community spread and large class sizes could play a part in transmission in schools, says Edward Goldstein, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts.

But a survey by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control found that the reopening of schools in several European countries had not been associated with a significant increase in community transmission.

But these countries maintained high levels of testing in the population, rapidly identified cases and implemented contact tracing, and its borders were closed, with strict enforcement of quarantines.  At larger schools, or those in areas where cases were rising, only a portion of students attended. When someone tested positive, schools were closed and teaching went back online.

“If transmission would be occurring unchecked in the community, we are sure it would spill over into schools,” says one expert.

Most countries operate on a 3 phase framework comprising; Pre-re-opening, during re-opening, and after re-opening. Each phase has specific protocols.

In pre-school re-opening, proper analysis of the situation should be conducted and preparations for reopening made. Schools must procure wash supplies, soap, hand sanitizer and disinfect and sanitize schools and learning spaces.

During school re-opening; which is the period immediately before and after school re-opening (roughly 1-2 months before and after) schools orientate  students and  parents  on  safe  school  reopening  protocols and enforce hygiene measures, including handwashing, respiratory etiquette, use of protective equipment, social distancing, cleaning procedures for facilities and safe food preparation practices.  After schools re-open, continuity of protective measures and behavioural changes are on centre stage.

Problems for poor countries

But low-income countries like Uganda face a very different set of circumstances to high-income countries when it comes to reopening schools after lockdown.

That is among the findings in a report launched by the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Marsh and McLennan and Zurich Insurance Group, titled `COVID-19 Risks Outlook: A Preliminary Mapping and its Implications – a companion for decision-makers, building on the Forum’s annual Global Risks Report’.

It found that poorer countries have a higher proportion of households that include both children and elderly people, face difficulty testing for COVID-19 and enforcing social distancing in existing school settings, and there is an urgency of maintaining the livelihoods of working-age adults to prevent hunger and poverty.

Our study finds reopening schools too early in developing countries could undermine the gains made so far in containing the spread of the virus. When deciding to reopen schools, policymakers need to weigh these findings against the cost of keeping schools closed for a prolonged period.

“While our study does not address all the issues related to schools reopening during the pandemic, we argue that evidence on household spread of the virus needs to be considered by governments when deciding to reopen schools,” the report says.

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