Schools need to maintain strict guidelines as they reopen

After an 18-month closure due to Covid-19, the government announced on Sunday the reopening of secondary and higher secondary educational institutions across the country on September 12. Without a doubt, the government made the correct decision in opening educational institutions; however, they still have a lot of work to do to keep children safe in their schools.

Though the elderly are most at risk of becoming infected and dying, young children are not immune. In Bangladesh, 163 children between the age of 11 and 20 died of coronavirus. The fatality rate is 0.61. 

However, the deaths of these children are linked to chronic diseases such as cancer, asthma, liver disease, kidney disease, and heart disease. That is, they have been afflicted with these diseases for a long time.

Some children who have long suffered from diseases such as Asthma, liver disease, kidney complications, and heart disease are forbidden from gathering in large groups in their educational institutions. Not only students, teachers, officials and also employees with these kinds of diseases will have to remain at home. 

Nowhere in the world are children under the age of 12 getting vaccinated. In some countries, children above the age of 12 are getting vaccinated. The World Health Organisation (WHO) is discouraging giving vaccines to children under the age of 18.   

Last year, the education ministry wanted to reopen educational institutions. The ministry was eagerly waiting for the infection to decrease but the infection began to increase again. Thus, they could not open educational institutions. Now, the infection rate is decreasing again. 

The educational institutions, including schools, colleges and universities need to be reopened, but we have to take preparation before reopening all these institutions. We should not reopen all of the institutions at once; instead, we should reopen them in stages. 

Now what the government will have to do is to involve the teachers and the guardians to maintain the health guidelines. They should also involve the local leaders. Only then will the government be able to make it a success. Otherwise, the infection rate will go up again. 

The guardians as well as the teachers will play a crucial role in maintaining the health guidelines too. They have to maintain their own health guidelines. If any of the guardians or teachers show Covid-19 symptoms, they will immediately have to be tested and placed in isolation. 

If they maintain the health guidelines properly, then, it will be easy for them to make students follow them.  

Infographic: TBS

The first thing the government should do now is to set up testing facilities at schools, colleges or near educational institutions so that one can easily get tested at a nearby booth. 

If anyone becomes Covid-19 positive, then, they will be able to isolate the person before it spreads. 

As the students are young, it is unlikely that they will require hospitalisation if they happen to be infected. Even then, we will have to keep the infected students in isolation. If many students get infected at the same time, some of them can be seriously ill. 

The second most important thing is to maintain the health guidelines while students are at their schools, colleges and universities. 

When they are in the dormitory they do not need to wear masks. But they must wear masks while they are on the campus. Students should go to the dining room in small groups, not all together. The student should not be allowed to eat sitting in the canteen.

The reading room and guest room should be kept closed. The students should not stay in a room that is overcrowded. 

Students from one class should not interact with students from other classes. If someone in a class becomes infected, the entire class must be quarantined. These measures must be implemented by the authorities of the relevant school, college, and university.

Thirdly, people over 55 years of age need to get vaccinated - because this age group is at the highest risk of becoming seriously ill - so we need to save our vaccines and not use all of it up on students. 

Nonetheless, there is a chance that a young student can carry the virus from school to home, and so they must remain vigilant. 

Now the infection is on the decline. However, we do not know how many days the situation will remain this way. The infection is now cluster-based, as a result we are getting isolated patients. And this will remain until the coronavirus goes away from this world. 

We need to break the clusters right now. Otherwise, like a small fire, this infection can quickly spread. The cluster transmission rate is lower than the community transmission rate.

However, there is no doubt that the infection will increase in the coming days. People who got vaccinated are getting infected. We could not get most of the population vaccinated. So, we will have to face the next wave. 

There is a good side to reopening the educational institution. If we open the educational institution now, when the infection will increase, students will get training on how they can continue their classes amid high infection in the pandemic. Then, we can run the classes with a limited number of students. We will not need the educational institutions to completely close. 

Only when there is a nationwide lockdown will the schools need to be closed. Other than that, the schools should remain open. 

Even if the country is in lockdown, schools that serve free meals to the poor must remain open. Needy children come to school not only for education, but also to get food from the school. As a result, we should never close these schools.

If they come to school and get training on how to maintain health guidelines, they can even give the training to their family members on how to wash hands, wear a mask and so on. Then, they can play an important role in creating awareness among common people. 

Dr M Mushtuq Husain is an adviser to the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).