While in Italy the debate on returning to class after festivity Christmas is far from closed (even if the government confirmed the reopening of 10), in other countries of Europe and the world situation it seems more fluid, even if in the absence of a common line in the decisions of the various governments. Either way, it goes to the obligation of mask to the increase of test weekly, passing through more drastic measures, such as referrals of openness or distance learning. All this amid the fears of families and teachers for the spread of variante Omicron.
Germany – Classes resumed in person today after the end of the Christmas holidays in Laender from Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Rhineland Palatinate and from tomorrow also in Saarland and from Wednesday Hamburg. In the Laender particularly affected by the fourth wave of covids, such as Thuringia and Baden-Wuerrtemberg, school reopening is a stain leopard. In Thuringia it will resume with remote lessons for the first two days of school and then each school will decide how to continue. The Baden-Wuerttemberg – another Southern Land hit hard by the infections – will decide after the conference of education ministers of the Laender on Wednesday how to return to class. There Bavaria school should restart on January 10 and this allows the Land to make an updated decision with the data of the contagion arriving in the coming days. In Berlin for the entire first week of school i children will be subjected to daily antigenic covid tests.
Netherlands – Dutch schools will reopen next week as planned after a vacation of Christmas longer than usual despite the increase in infections fed by the variant Omicron. The government announced it. On December 19, i Netherlands they have imposed some of the toughest restrictions on Europe to curb the rapid spread ofOmicron, closing schools for three weeks and all non-essential shops, cultural and entertainment venues entertainment until January 14th. “The reopening is responsible,” said the Dutch Ministry of Education, citing the management team of theepidemic of the country, which advises the government on managing the Covid-19 pandemic. While the primary schools and middle schools will reopen on January 10, higher education institutions will be limited to online courses “due to the increase in the number of infections in this age group ”, added the Ministry of Education. The teenagers 17 years of age or younger will be able to play outdoor sports again until 8pm next week, when the situation will be re-evaluated. The Dutch National Institute of Public Health stated that i positive cases of coronaviruses are on the rise, mainly because the stump Omicron, more infectious, is now dominant. About 14,623 people are tested positive in the last 24 hours, compared to 11,440 a week earlier, with the average rate of infection in increase for the sixth consecutive day.
United States – In the various states, the aim is to speed up the tests of pupils e personal, but without excluding, as a last resort, the back to Dad. While the CDC guidelines suggest the use of masks. In Washington, DC, all staff and 51,000 public school students have to load a negative result of the test on the website of the district before returning to class on Wednesday. California has pledged to provide free home test kits to all of its 6 million public school students. In Massachusetts, Michigan and Washington are delaying lessons a few days for allow i test. Schools in New York City, the country’s largest borough, will reopen in times foreseen, but with more tests per million or so students. And instead of putting in forty a whole class if one person tests positive, all classmates will be provided with quick tests to take at home. In case of outcome negative, you can go back to the classroom the next day, seven days later you will have to do another one.
Canada – Schools closed in Ontario, the most populous province of Canada, due to the record increase in cases of Covid-19. The premier announced it Doug Ford. In the region we will then move on to distance learning. Meals indoors are prohibited, shutters then lowered for gyms e cinema. Hospitals were told to stop all non-urgent surgeries. Ontario is experiencing new peaks in infections, fueled by the variant Omicron, among the concern about the pressure on hospitals. “I know distance learning isn’t ideal,” said Ford, “The fact is, omicron is spreading like wildfire.” There reopening of schools has been postponed until at least 17 January. The premier said he expects one “tsunamiOf cases and noted that only 1% of 100,000 new cases a day could overwhelm hospitals. The closures they will start on Wednesday.
France – Over 12 million French children returned to school today, with new rules aimed at slowing down the spread of Covid-19. From November, French pupils aged 6 and over must wear the mask in the classroom. If a child tests positive, all the others in the same class will have to test negatives three times in the next four days to stay in school. The first test antigenico o PCR should be performed by a healthcare professional, followed by do-it-yourself tests every two days, which should be provided free of charge pharmacy. Pharmacists expressed concern on Monday about possible shortages caused by the new rules. The government is also encouraging authority locals, in charge of financing public schools, to purchase monitors that warn when classrooms need to be ventilated
United Kingdom – Reopening after Christmas of schools confirmed in the UK from the next few days, despite the Covid contagion powered by the new Omicron variant, but with a reinforcement of the protocols of health caution for children: the government of Boris Johnson through the mouth of the Minister of Education, Nadhim Zahawi, specifying that even in England – by far the major nation of the Kingdom – not only will the already announced obligation to have a mask in the classroom be introduced for middle and high school students, but also that of a negative test to return from vacation and a double weekly buffer control for all.
Zahawi stressed that the imposition of masks in class will remain in effect only “the time strictly necessary”, with a deadline currently set for January 26. And that the test kits will be provided free of charge to the various institutes. There mask it was already foreseen, like the tampons, in the schools of Scotland e Ireland in the North, where local regional governments decide on health and education, while in Wales they will also start at the resumption after Christmas with the only difference that the weekly tests will be 3. TheLabor opposition, which rules right in Wales, in any case accuses the central executive Tory of having delayed his decisions concerning England too much, especially since the wave Omicron is causing holes in the school sector on the island – as well as in the crucial sector of the hospitals and in other areas – as a result of the absences of related staff to contagions or contacts with infected people (although for the latter case the duration of isolation has already been reduced in the country). The same government Johnson anticipated that the revision of the general rules on the Covid emergency, expected this week, will not even now lead to reintroduction of any new lockdown model restrictions since the latest data “do not justify it”: given the decline in overall cases recorded yesterday (albeit at around 137,000) and the containment of dead, compared with a number of vaccines that have risen to about 35 million third booster doses already administered and a total of hospitalizations in increase, but for now far from the peaks of the first wave of the pandemic.
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