Schools – The 3 changes being considered by the government and the opening date

The decision to open schools normally on January 10 seems to be approaching a resolution, according to the latest information, the government after the relevant suggestions that it seems to be receiving from experts.

This decision is driven by three reasons:

a) for psychological reasons

b) for scholarly reasons so that children do not miss lessons and do not undergo more trials

c) for epidemiological reasons, as it is considered that better supervision takes place within the school.

According to the same information, that there will be an increased number of tests on students -self tests and not rapid tests- but also adaptation of protocols especially for contagion in classrooms.

The relevant announcements will be made at 16:00 by Thanos Plevris and Niki Kerameos. After the meeting of the committee of experts, the new sanitary operation protocol will be finalized.

Emphasis will be placed on increasing student testing, while the protocol that will be followed in case of an incident in a class will also change.

The measures under consideration

In particular, the information states that the majority of experts are in favor of increasing the number of self tests to 3 per week instead of 2 which was the case before the Christmas holidays.

Thus, students are told to do three self tests – on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

There will also be a different approach to managing the other students after a coronavirus case. To be precise, all classmates in the section of the student who became ill are told to take a rapid test. Now, only the unvaccinated do rapid and the vaccinated self tests, while it also depends on whether they are sitting near the desk of the student who was found positive.

Changes, however, are not ruled out in the 50% + 1 protocol to close a school section, although the debate on this issue remains open. Information wants this percentage to be reduced to 30% or 40%, based on which the operation of the class will be suspended.

Some experts require a postponement of school opening

Despite the apparent opening of the schools on January 10, a group of experts is asking for its extension for fear of the Omicron variant.

In particular, Nikos Kapravelos, Director of the 2nd ICU of Papanikolaou Hospital, was in favor of postponing the opening of schools.

“I support a small extension” he replied about the opening of the schools and continued that “if there is indeed the optimistic scenario, the schools will open more safely, with health protocols. We have seen that cases are increasing, if they increase and the pressure on the ICU is greater, no one will be able to stand it.”

“We are not saying that schools should be closed, but children should also be protected and the potential for the spread of Omicron is huge, and if the schools open, most of them will be infected. The Netherlands, which is opening schools, has had a lockdown since Christmas,” he said.

In the same vein, Nikos Tzanakis, argued that it is better for schools to remain closed for at least another week.

The professor of pulmonology noted that it is practically difficult to perform rapid tests on hundreds of thousands of students at the same time, so it may be preferable to do three self-tests a week.

“About one in seven children at the age of 0 to 20 is currently an active case,” he said, noting that “every family has at least one active case. It is so aggressive and so exponential (Omicron)… “.