School reopenings challenging to maintain, says SNP adviser Sridhar
A public health exp er t who advises the Scottish Government on its handling of the corona virus pandemic has warned that there opening of Scotland’ s schools will be “challenging to maintain”.
Writing in The Scots man today, Profess so rDevi Sridhar of Edinburgh University said up to 1.6 billion children are off school worldwide.
Even countries that are credited with handling the crisis relatively well, such as Germany and South Korea, have struggled to keep schools open, she writes.
Prof Sridhar, who sits on the Scottish Government’ s Covid -19 Advisory Group, writes: “While schools have not proven to be‘ super-spreading’ locations like bars and clubs, they also are not complete - ly immune or in a protective bubble. They are part of a com
mu ni ty. A Public Health England report on English schools in June noted that the higher the local prevalence of the virus was, the more likely there were to be outbreaks.
“Keeping schools open requires a first line of defence to prevent the virus ever entering the school, using abroad strategy of community suppression, mitigating transmission within school settings through hand-washing, ventilation, outside learning, face coverings as needed, distancing among teachers and between teachers and pupils, and finally responding quickly when cases emerge through a robust test-trace-and-isolate scheme.”
She adds: “Children living in Scotland are some of the lucky ones to be getting back into school and getting back into their daily routine of learning and play.“
Children returned to Scotland’ s schools earlier this month with no requirements for physical distancing between younger pupils and no rules around face coverings.
However, face coverings are to be introduced in secondary school communal areas after a change in guidance from the World Health Organisation.