The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) urged on Wednesday to guarantee the safe reopening of schools at the beginning of the third year of the covid-19 pandemic, ruling out that high rates of anti-Covid vaccination among children are necessary for this.
“The first and most important thing that countries can try to do for children is to get them to return to school safely to protect their social, mental and physical well-being,” PAHO Director Carissa Etienne told a news conference.
“Virtual learning does not and cannot replace face-to-face education,” he emphasized.
Etienne stressed that children have also been affected by the pandemic, although not as visibly as adults. And he stressed that millions in the Americas have not returned to the classroom and face “the worst educational crisis” recorded in the region.
“With each day that children go without going to school in person, the greater the likelihood that they will drop out and never return to school, which has lifelong consequences,” he warned.
According to the guidelines of PAHO, the regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO), the use of masks, social distancing and adequate ventilation allow children to return to educational centers safely.
“High vaccination rates (anticovid) among children are not a prerequisite for the reopening of schools,” Etienne stressed.
PAHO said that before vaccinating healthy children against COVID-19, countries need to have high immunization coverage among those most at risk of illness and death from the virus, such as the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions.
Once vulnerable groups are protected, “countries should consider the benefits of vaccinating children to further reduce transmission” of the virus, Etienne said.
In the Americas, 17 countries are vaccinating children against covid-19: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, United States, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.
PAHO deputy director Jarbas Barbosa said that the WHO has not yet approved a vaccine against covid-19 for children.
But he recalled that the group of immunization experts that advises the WHO recommended last week the use of Pfizer’s anticovid vaccine for children between 5 and 11 years old.
– Omicron and the crystal ball –
According to PAHO figures, the region of the Americas registered 8 million new COVID-19 infections in the last week, the highest number of weekly cases since the start of the pandemic. Deaths from covid-19 also increased, totaling 18,000 throughout the region.
In the last seven days, some states in Mexico saw new infections triple, while in Central America weekly deaths increased by 107% compared to the previous week. In Brazil, cases grew 193%, and there were especially high infections also in Haiti, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.
“As Covid-19 cases spread more actively and faster than ever before, it is clear that omicron has become the predominant strain in our region right now,” Etienne said.
First reported by South Africa on November 24, ómicron is the most contagious variant detected since the appearance of the coronavirus in late 2019.
But it generally causes a less severe infection among vaccinated people, raising hopes that Covid-19 could become an endemic disease, like the flu.
“We don’t have the crystal ball. It is therefore too early to say that we are approaching the end of the pandemic,” Etienne said.
However, he assured that there are “the tools” to control the spread: anticovid vaccines and public health measures (use of a mask, social distancing, ventilation of closed spaces and frequent hand washing).
PAHO highlighted that Argentina, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, and Uruguay have already achieved 70% vaccination coverage.
However, the Bahamas, Dominica, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname fell short of the WHO goal of having 40% of the population vaccinated by the end of 2021.
AFP.
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