Should schoolchildren go back to school? Can you think of a safe return? Are the sanitary conditions in place, considering that boys, girls and adolescents constitute a population susceptible to becoming ill because until now there is no vaccine that offers immunity to the school population?
A study conducted by Catalina Gonzalez, PhD in Public Health and academic from the School of Nutrition and Dietetics of the University of Valparaíso, with the student Paullette hidalgo, warns about the risks and the impact that the return of the three and a half million students of the pre-basic, basic and secondary education to the school system.
The researcher carried out a bibliographic compilation of the entire scientific evidence available about Covid-19 in children (zero to 19 years old), analysis that included epidemiological information with data obtained from Ministry of Health and its Department of Health Statistics and Information (DEIS), as well as the review of international articles from the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, China and other Asian countries.
The study reported that in Chile, as of July 23, 2020, had been diagnosed almost thirty thousand cases (29,924) of Covid-19 in children and adolescents, with 51 deceased corresponding to the sum of deaths of confirmed cases with positive and suspected PCR. Also, thousand 83 minors have been hospitalized at some point for the disease.
Dr. González stated that “the fatality from COVID-19 is higher in infants and preschoolers, and lower in adolescents. If only deaths from Covid-19 in minors of confirmed cases with positive PCR are considered, 18 cases are registered ”.
Regarding the transmission of the coronavirus in school settings, the researcher stated that the international literature indicates that “one of the mathematical models made by the University of Granada, Spain, estimated that in classrooms of ten students per room, on the first day of school each school will interact on average with 74 people and the second day will come to be exposed to 808 people.
Another case analyzed occurred in a secondary school in France, with students from 15 and 17 years old, where he was infected within the school 40.9 percent of students and staff. Another mathematical model made in South Korea, in a reopened school, estimated that the transmission rate would increase ten times, expecting that in seven days the contagion would cover 28.4 percent of schoolchildren and after 14 days 33.6 percent.
When inquiring about the behavior of schoolchildren and self-care measures in schools, the academic mentioned a study carried out in Wuhan, China, which “showed that only 42.05 percent of the schoolchildren performed hand washing and 51.60 percent maintained the instructions for using masks. The rest of the children did not follow the instructions ”.
Catalina González assured that there are very few cases in the world in which schools have returned to face-to-face classes and that, despite the fact that all the self-care measures (use of a mask, social distancing and hand washing), staying for a long time in a classroom, which is a closed place, will increase the risk of contagion.
“When educational establishments reopen outbreaks will occur. There will be a percentage of children and adolescents who will develop the disease in a moderate and severe way. In addition, although for this disease deaths in this age group are much less frequent, this does not mean that they will not occur. Scientific evidence also alerts the public health system that after the blockade is released, public transport will be the main sources of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in metropolitan cities. Therefore, although all measures are taken strictly at school, those schoolchildren who use the public transport they could be infected during the transfer and from there pass the virus to part of the school community ”.
Finally, Dr. González stated that the objective of the study is to provide the necessary arguments to decide whether schoolchildren should return to the classroom school system or remain in confinement until a vaccine is found that generates the necessary immunity so that the child population is protected from the coronavirus.
“In this pandemic situation, if the school is reopened, the right to education is ensured in exchange for exposing children and adolescents to disease and death. Therefore, it is worth asking what is the alternative that will produce the greater good and the lesser evil? In our opinion, between the two imperatives -the right to health and the right to education- the right to health should prevail ”.
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