Berlin: These schools are reporting the first corona cases

Berlin. In Berlin, the first school closed again shortly after the summer holidays due to a possible Corona case. A teacher of the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Gymnasium in Friedrichshagen (Treptow-Köpenick) stated that they tested positive for Sars-CoV-2, the district announced on Thursday. The RBB had previously reported. “It is a precautionary, probably one-day closure of this one school,” said the Senate Department for Education on Thursday.

“The school administration learned late on Wednesday afternoon that a teacher had tested positive. In order to ensure that none of the possible contact persons comes to the school the following morning, this caring procedure was decided. “

Headmaster Thomas Hähnert told the dpa: “I only found out about the positive test result from the teacher yesterday evening and, in consultation with the school supervisory board, decided that we would keep the school closed out of sheer caution and in order to coordinate the procedure with the health department. “

Also read: Parents also require a mask to be used in Berlin classrooms

All the news about the coronavirus in Berlin, Germany and the world: The most important We have questions and answers about the coronavirus in Berlin here collected for you. In our News blog we report on the current corona developments in Berlin and Brandenburg. The You can read Germany-wide and international coronavirus news here. We also show in one interactive map of how the coronavirus is in Berlin, Germany, Europe and the world spreads.

Corona-Fall am Gerhart-Hauptmann-Gymnasium in Berlin: All teachers are tested

He cannot yet say whether the grammar school with around 800 students will open again on Friday. He is now in contact with the health department, which is looking at how many contacts the teacher has had. Hähnert said he had informed the students and parents on Wednesday via a newsletter by email and via the school’s digital platform that the high school would be closed on Thursday.

All teachers and a school class should be tested on Sars-CoV-2 on Thursday. The responsible district councilor Bernd Geschanowski announced on Thursday. Tom Erdmann, Berlin chairman of the education union GEW, praised the announced tests. “The health department reacted well and correctly,” he said. The next regular test dates for teachers would not have been until the beginning of September.

According to Geschanowski, it is not yet possible to estimate when the high school will be able to reopen. The district health department will decide how to proceed when the test results are available.

The Gerhart-Hauptmann-Gymnasium is the first school in Berlin that was closed again just a few days after the summer vacation due to a possible Corona case.

Berlin’s schools and Corona – more on the topic:

First corona cases in several Berlin schools

Shortly after the start of the new teaching year in Berlin, there are already the first corona cases in nine schools. These include facilities in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Reinickendorf and Treptow-Köpenick. In none of the cases was there an infection in the school, emphasized the spokesman for the Berlin education administration, Martin Klesmann.

Last is at the Max Bill School in Weißensee a teacher tested positive for the coronavirus. In addition to the woman, three other teachers and 24 students are in quarantine. This was announced by Pankow’s school councilor Torsten Kühne (CDU) on Thursday upon request. The Senate Department for Education, which is responsible for this upper school center, informed them that all necessary measures were taken immediately, says Kühne. “All of them have been put in quarantine at home. The care then runs through the local health authorities. ”People who do not live in Pankow are also affected. All schools in Pankow run by the district are still corona-free, emphasizes Kühne.

City council Kühne had the infection rate in schools analyzed and announced on Thursday afternoon that no corona infection had yet been detected at or in a Pankow school. “As a rule, the transmission takes place in a private or family environment, at events such as the Trumpet Club or when people return to travel,” says Kühne. That could indicate that the hygiene requirements in schools work – or that children are not infectious above average.

Am Heinz-Berggruen-Gymnasium in Westend a student tested positive for the virus, as headmaster Dirk Kwee confirmed to the Berliner Morgenpost on Wednesday. It was a child “from the lower grades”, he said, without wanting to give further details. According to Morgenpost information, it is a child from the 6th grade. “The class of the affected child and any teachers who had contact with him were sent home immediately,” said Kwee. The rest of the school should now go back to normal operations, as far as possible.

“Of course we miss the teachers who are now in quarantine,” says Kwee. With the exception of the student’s family, the parents of the other children would not initially be tested because they had no direct contact with the infected, explained Kwee, referring to the corresponding requirements of the Senate Department for Education.

After these first safety measures introduced by the school, the health department is now responsible for the further procedure. On this Thursday, his employees will test all the children in the school, Kwee continued. The health department was able to organize this measure “within an hour” on Tuesday.

Corona at Berlin schools: The gray monastery grammar school also affected

Also for that Evangelical high school for the gray monastery in Schmargendorf On Wednesday, director Annette Martinez Moreno confirmed a case of infection that it was a student. Your classmates and their parents as well as a few members of a sports club were informed immediately, the young people stayed at home and – like teachers – will be tested this Thursday. In the grammar school, a mask has to be worn in class since the beginning of the school year, according to the director.

At the Anna Essinger Community School in Lichterfelde there is also a student who was infected with the coronavirus. The school has two locations, only the secondary and upper levels on Tietzenweg in Lichterfelde are affected. On Monday, a secondary school student complained about symptoms such as loss of smell shortly after entering the facility. “The special attentiveness of the teachers, who immediately turned on the health department, was very helpful,” said Martin Klesmann, spokesman for the education administration. The student was sent home immediately. A subsequent corona test showed that he was infected with the virus. The student only had brief contact with his mixed-age study group and three teachers who are now in quarantine for 14 days.

An three high schools in Reinickendorf there is also an individual case.

Parents’ representatives are calling for a discussion about the mask requirement in class

After the first corona cases, parent representatives are calling for a renewed discussion about the mask requirement in class. “Of course it was to be expected that there would be cases of infection and that schools would at least partially have to close,” said Norman Heise, chairman of the state parents’ committee, on Thursday.

“The question is, are the schools’ hygiene concepts effective, or do you need adjustments? For example because the ventilation does not work, because there are too few washbasins or too few masks for the students who have forgotten them, “said Heise. “I also believe that the schools should give everyone involved a thought about the subject of mouth and nose protection in class.”

It should be considered again to what extent this is helpful. The Senate Department for Education has opted for a mask requirement that applies in the school building, but not in class and not in the school yard. Heise admitted that the parents’ views on this issue were quite divergent. “We are of the opinion that this should be a decision that the school conferences can make themselves.”

School in Berlin with no minimum distance and with mask requirement

Classes in Berlin had started on Monday – with no minimum distance, but with a mask requirement in school buildings, except in the classroom and hygiene concept. The move was highly controversial. Among others, the education union GEW had criticized an opening in this form as negligent and called for smaller learning groups and a mixture of face-to-face teaching and home learning. In turn, despite the corona pandemic, the economy had spoken out in favor of starting school with face-to-face classes for all students.

–