Organized Parents: The tracking protocol in schools had to remain as it was

Charalambos Dionysiou, President of the Pancyprian Confederation of Federations of Parents' Associations of Public Secondary Schools, expressed his opposition to the change in the tracking protocol in schools.

16 SCHOOLS1 ORGANIZED PARENTS, TRACKING PROTOCOL

The President of the Pancyprian Confederation of Parents' Associations of Parents of Public Secondary Schools, Charalambos Dionysiou, expressed his opposition to the differentiation of the protocol for detecting coronavirus cases in schools, saying that the protocol should remain as it should be.

Asked by KYPE to comment on the differentiation of the case tracking protocol in schools, Mr. Dionysiou said that “we believe that with the data that currently exist in some schools, the phenomenon will be observed that every two or three days will be closed by five , six schools ”.

"That is, it is not possible if a school has 18, 20 departments and in all three departments cases are identified to close the whole school and not the classes as they were until now. "Why should all children be 'punished', stay at home with distance education, while there are nasal tests that are done every week at school where all the preventive health protection measures are taken?"

He noted that this is happening at a time when high schools a few days ago had returned to school and high schools and technical schools have entered the process of their final preparation before the four-month exams and before the Cypriot exams. So, he continued, "any disturbance that will be created in the schools at the moment with the relevant decree will cause inequality among the students".

Answering questions, Mr. Dionysiou said that the protocols should remain as they were.

"We believe that the protocols should remain as they are at the moment. We had also mentioned to the epidemiological team that we had the meeting that schools will be closed where there are transmission chains that can not be controlled, not with two or three cases in one school to close the whole school ".

He added that "if we take it this way, if the student who is positive in the coronation and will stay in his whole class says home, the whole bus that was moved - that can take two or three buses, especially the children of the countryside to reach their school - then why did the public transport decree change from 50% to 100%? So we have put more people at risk with it? ”

It is recalled that today the Ministry of Health issued a statement according to which it proceeds with the differentiation of the case tracking protocol in schools after the detection of transmission chains in school units by the Epidemiological Surveillance and Infectious Diseases Control Unit.

According to the protocol, close contacts of a student or teacher positive for the virus are considered all children of the same department, as well as out-of-class contacts during breaks, on the bus, at social gatherings, etc., and should remain restricted.

In cases where in a school unit (school or circle) different students / teachers from three and / or more different classes are detected positive for the virus, within a week, the school is closed and the education is carried out remotely for a period of one week. If it is an Primary School, all the classes of the circle are closed since the two circles are spatially separate.

It is noted that one week after the closure of the unit (ie the 6th day after closure), the whole school undergoes a rapid antigen detection test (nasal sampling for minors), except for classes that are considered close contacts and should remain self-limiting for all the indicated period. Those classes that do not have a new case return the next day. In the classes where a new case is detected, only the students / teachers of the class who are not in close contact and have a negative result return.

During the time that the school unit operates with distance education, students also abstain from afternoon and extracurricular activities.