Health Board worried about rise in coronavirus after distance learning ends
The Health Board and National Institute for Health Development are developing recommendations about how to limit the spread of coronavirus when students return to school next year.
Children in Estonia will return to school on January 11 after the school holidays if the current restrictions are not extended. The Health Board wants preventative guidance to be followed as it fears there will be a spike in infections.
"It is characteristic of respiratory droplet infections that after long holidays or school breaks, students come back to school and the incidence of viral diseases increases," head of the Communicable Diseases Surveillance and Epidemic Control Department of the Health Board Hanna Sepp told ERR.
The two agencies are now developing recommendations to reduce the infection rate.
Hobby education is another matter. The Health Board supports the restarting of hobby education only after the resumption of in-class learning in schools and if the epidemiological situation allows it.
"Hobby activities bring together children and adults from different schools and institutions, and the potential to transmit the infection to several schools and institutions in the region is great. Therefore, it would be more practical to restart hobbies after returning to school and once the epidemiological situation has stabalized," Sepp said.
It is not yet known if the restrictions around education will be extended, but Sepp said it depends on the spread of the infection and the age groups which become infected.
"The severity of the disease must be taken into account," she told ERR, but did not give details about target numbers or the infection rate.
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Editor: Helen Wright