Coronavirus pandemic ‘accelerating’ as fresh cases hit daily record
As nurseries across Wales prepare to reopen their doors as lockdown measures are eased, a manager tells Ryan O’Neil the unique challenges the industry is facing
THE head of the World Health Organisation has said the coronavirus pandemic is “accelerating” and that more than 150,000 cases were reported on Thursday – the highest single-day number so far.
In a media briefing yesterday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said nearly half of the newly-reported cases were in the Americas, with significant numbers in south Asia and the Middle East.
“We are in a new and dangerous phase,” he said, warning that restrictive measures are still needed to stop the pandemic.
“Many people are understandably fed up with being at home [and] countries are understandably eager to open up their societies,” he added, but warned that the virus is still “spreading fast” and that measures like social distancing, mask wearing and handwashing are still critical.
He noted the toll would be especially great on refugees, of whom more than 80% live in mostly developing nations.
“We have a shared duty to do everything we can to prevent, detect and respond to the transmission of Covid19 detected among refugees in hospitals.”
Meanwhile, Germany has reported its highest daily increase in coronavirus cases in a month after managing to contain its outbreak better than comparable large European nations.
The Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s disease control centre, listed 770 new confirmed cases, taking the country’s total to 188,534.
A flurry of positive tests this week from an outbreak at a slaughterhouse in the western region of Gütersloh contributed the biggest daily increase since May 20.
The German government has stuck to its course of gradually reopening the country while seeking to clamp down swiftly on localised outbreaks.
A free app launched on Tuesday to help trace people who may have been exposed to the virus has already been downloaded 9.6 million times in Germany, which has a population of 83 million.
Japan released a similar app yesterday, also using technology developed by Apple and Google.
Officials say data will only be recorded and stored in individual users’ phones and deleted after 14 days to protect their privacy.
“We hope a widespread use of this app will lead to prevention of infections,” Japanese health minister Katsunobu Kato said.
China declared a fresh outbreak in Beijing under control after confirming 25 new cases among 360,000 people
tested. That was up by just four from a day earlier.
A Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention official said the number of cases was expected to fall soon in the outbreak centred on Beijing’s main wholesale market. The capital has confirmed 183 new cases over the past week.
The 25 new cases reported yesterday in Beijing were among 32 nationwide in China, four among Chinese residents who had returned from overseas.
The pandemic is waxing and waning in many places, with cases soaring in Indonesia and India, Brazil and Mexico, but appearing to be under control or contained in Thailand, Japan, Vietnam and New Zealand.
India recorded 13,586 newly confirmed cases yesterday, raising its total to 380,532, but shops, factories and places of worship have been allowed to reopen while schools and cinemas remain closed.
Infections surged in rural areas after hundreds of thousands of migrant workers left cities after losing jobs in a lockdown announced in late March. Such precautions are now restricted to high-risk “containment” zones.
In South Korea, outbreaks have inspired second-guessing on whether officials were too quick to ease social distancing guidelines in April after a first wave of infections waned.
Officials reported 49 cases yesterday as the virus continued to spread in the densely populated capital area of Seoul, where half of its 51 million people live. About 30-50 new cases have been confirmed per day since late May.
Coronavirus has infected more than 8.5 million people worldwide and killed over 454,000, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
In the US, which has reported the most confirmed cases at nearly 2.2 million, states have pushed ahead with emerging from full or partial shutdowns despite surges in new cases in many places, including Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and California.
Aid group Doctors Without Borders said at least 10 cases had been confirmed at one of the world’s largest refugee camps, the sprawling Dadaab complex in Kenya.
Humanitarian organisations have warned that the virus could have devastating impacts on crowded refugee camps, especially as travel restrictions have made the delivery of aid increasingly difficult.
SINCE the coronavirus lockdown, nurseries and childcare facilities that were once full of laughter and joy have been eerily silent.
With many parents stuck at home coming up with new ways to keep their young ones entertained, the pandemic has meant that only children of key workers have been allowed to attend nurseries.
Earlier this month the Welsh Government announced that nurseries and childcare settings in Wales “can start planning” to reopen in line with schools on June 29.
Although final arrangements are expected to be announced soon, Cardiff North MS Julie Morgan has already said the Welsh Government was “aiming to enable childcare settings to increase their operations from June 29, alongside our schools”.
Natalie Bourne, who manages Sunnybank Day Nursery in Newport, said that while it will not have to reduce its numbers, other measures will become the norm when it reopens.
“We’ll be maintaining a two-metre distance at the entrance to the nursery and only allowing one family in the entrance porch at any one time, unless the children are unsettled, in which case we have additional PPE for parents if they need to come into the building.
“We also have sterilising stations with hand sanitiser and disinfectant wipes, so the door handle, etc, can be wiped down whenever someone comes.”
Ms Bourne said the nursery was not requiring staff to wear masks as they wanted a welcoming atmosphere for children, but that PPE equipment was available.
“We know children of such a young age rely a lot on facial expressions, and the last thing we want for them coming back after not being here for three months is to be looking at staff wearing these scary masks.
“We can make masks as childfriendly looking as we want, but at the end of the day it’s still quite daunting for them, and we don’t want to put any additional strain or upset on them.
“The building looks the same inside so we want it to be as normal as possible for them.”
Other changes have involved removing equipment and toys from some rooms in the nursery to create more space and employing a rigorous cleaning regime.
“We’ve had to remove some of the room furnishings, reduce the amount of toys. We’ve got extreme washing procedures, washing things three times a day and doing a lot of deep cleaning.
“We’ve tried to keep as much as possible and obviously there’s things we can’t get rid of.
“Some of the messy sensory play, things like sand, playdough and slime that the children normally do, will have to be reduced and risk assessed, for example. We might have to give children their own pieces rather than sharing.
“We’re spread across three floors so the after-school club will be in one room of eight children, while preschool will be put in different rooms in groups of eight, up to a maximum of three groups.
“We are lucky we have a lot of outdoor space where we can have three groups outside, like a patio area, a willow den for reading. Some things like our big sand tray will remain shut for the moment.”
Ms Bourne says the childcare industry faces a unique challenge as children are less likely to understand what is going on.
“It’s easier with schools as the children are that bit older and understand it better when you talk about things like social distancing.
“How do you explain that to a twoyear-old?
“Kids come in and they’re used to playing together, holding hands with everyone, hugging their friends.
“We obviously have to look after babies crying and you have to pick them up to do that. So we still need to give that care and attention whatever is going on.
“Parents are obviously anxious, but they’ve been really understanding, they’ve been amazing with us.
“We are near the Royal Gwent Hospital, so before we closed we were looking after a lot of children of key workers. We’re still putting ourselves at risk [reopening], but we’re not thinking of it like that.”
Petra Williams, manager at Kites Nursery in Caerleon, says it’s about finding innovative ways to adapt to the ‘new normal’.
“We’re a massive nursery. We’ve got 10 big rooms which we’ve changed around so we’ve brought the items and equipment in the upstairs rooms for the toddlers and preschool downstairs so we’re all on the same floor but still distanced from each other,” said Ms Williams.
“We’ve put a temporary hand basin in reception for parents to wash their children’s hands before we take them into their rooms. We’re constantly washing everything, like doors, which we would be doing anyway.
“It’s about being proactive where if we see a child putting something in their mouth we just pick it up to be washed. We’ve got big buckets of Milton steriliser. We’d normally do the dishes twice a week, but they’re being thrown in to be washed straightaway.
“We have breakfast for children and we’d be teaching them how to serve their own breakfast, which we won’t do now. It’s little changes like that that make a massive difference.
“It’s tweaks rather than major changes, but it’s just about thinking about things.”
Ms Williams says staff won’t have to wear PPE equipment “unless a child has symptoms, in which case we’d isolate them until a parent comes, and we would have to isolate and get a test ourselves as well”.
The nursery, which has capacity for up to 95 children, recently reopened for children of key workers and is anticipating a full reopening once the announcement is made by the Welsh Government.
Ms Williams admits it’s been a challenge.
“It’s been hard for three or fouryear-olds who’ve been coming to us all their lives and know us like their second family, they struggled to come back after being at home.
“It’s all very different but it’s calmed down a bit now, and they settle in and don’t know the difference other than washing their hands when they come in.
“We won’t have any water play or things like sand and playdough, we’ve had to remove all that. We’ve had to take away blankets and soft toys that are obviously hard to wash, and children are bringing their own in and taking it home with them.
“Our cot blankets are washed all the time. There are things like that which are a bit hard as we’re such a big nursery.
“We’re just trying to talk to children as well, especially the older ones, about germs and not to share, without frightening them either, because they’ve got to play and learn.”
“Hopefully we can fully open at the end of the month.
“Normally we’ve an open-door policy, but that’s not happening now. We’ve got posters up so people know to wait outside in their cars and only one comes in at a time.
“When we can fully reopen, it’ll be about fully setting up the rooms and communicating it to staff and parents.”