According to the updated procedure, it is no longer enough for a child under the age of 6 to show symptoms of Covid-19 to be recommended for a screening test. In order for the test to be ordered, the child must also meet at least one other condition: present “a clinical condition requiring hospitalization” or have close contact with people who should be protected in the event of a positive test ( community or person at risk in the household).
If a kindergarten child fulfills these conditions and tests positive for coronavirus, he must of course stay home for a while, but beyond that not much will happen on the school side, if any. the less he is the only patient in his class: teachers and class can continue to come to school normally, being considered to be at low risk of infection. If, on the other hand, another child from the same bubble or from the same class develops symptoms in the fortnight, we can move towards the formation of a “cluster”. The second potentially ill child must then also be tested. If it turns out to be contaminated, the class concerned is closed and all these little people are sent home for quarantine. Along with this quarantine, the teacher should be tested, but not automatically the other children in the class. The latter should only be tested if they themselves develop possible symptoms of Covid-19 within two weeks.
The situation is different, however, if it is the kindergarten teacher who tests positive. There, we close the class without waiting for additional cases.
The change in strategy for the group of children aged 3, 4 and 5 stems from the latest assessments by the Risk Assessment Group (RAG), responsible for “analyzing the risk for the population” on the basis of epidemiological and scientific data. In its observations, the RAG among other things pointed out that there seems to be little contamination from one child to another in the school environment. In addition, children are much less likely than adults to develop severe forms of the disease, and also appear to transmit the virus less.
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