Return to school tests Europe’s test for Covid-19

Continent’s return to school, which began in August and will mostly be completed by next week, will offer a glimpse into which national strategies work and which do not, as different European countries try to make the classroom safer. Try a variety of methods.

Italy is one of Europe’s most cautious countries, requiring all teachers and other school staff to show proof of vaccination, recovery from COVID-19 or persistent negative tests. Masks are mandatory for almost everyone entering the school.

In contrast, the UK—and especially its most populous part, England—has largely returned to pre-Covid-19 normalcy. Schools do not require masks or vaccinations, and earlier strategies against infection, such as the quarantine bubble, have been abandoned.

Other major European countries, such as France, Germany and Spain, fall between social distancing rules and wearing masks in schools, but no vaccine requirements for staff.

Much of Europe has made steady progress in controlling the pandemic in recent months, as vaccination rates have surpassed those in the Americas – which includes continental countries where vaccination campaigns began at a slow pace last winter, but then Has picked up pace. In most European countries, infection, hospitalization and death rates from COVID-19 are significantly lower than in the US

However, health experts have warned that a mass return to schools and offices after August, coupled with cold weather and socializing indoors, could reverse some of Europe’s progress.

In the US, Covid-19 infection rates are increasing in states where schools are open sooner. But in many cases, the increase has been accompanied by statewide vaccination rates well below the national average and significantly lower in much of Europe.

In Mississippi, infections in schools have sent thousands of students into quarantine since reopening in early August. But with 40% of its population fully vaccinated, the state lags behind the 53% overall level in the US. In the UK, 65% of the total population is now fully vaccinated, and 62% in Italy.

This has given European leaders and public-health experts reason to hope that their return to school will go more smoothly than some US European officials and public-health experts have also given many countries under the mask mandate and continued implementation of social distancing measures. indicate usage. Distancing in schools.

Europe wants to avoid a repeat of last year, when a sharp drop in infections during the summer and a general feeling among many that the virus had been defeated ran into the reality of a deadly resurgence of the pandemic by late fall.

“The higher vaccination rates reassure me in general this school year compared to last year, but a lot depends on what happens with the variants,” said Claudio Zanone, a retired surgeon who specializes in motor medicine. He is the Scientific Director of Sanita. Organization that promotes scientific research.

Most regions of Italy will start opening their schools from 13 September. All school staff are required to have an EU digital COVID certificate indicating that the holder has been vaccinated, tested afresh for the virus, or has recovered from COVID. -19 in the last six months. About 90% of school staff in Italy have been vaccinated. Opponents of Green Pass have held protests but struggled to garner much support. In the Lombardy region, where Milan is the capital, fewer than 100 workers out of about 300,000 reported going to school without a green pass earlier this month, according to regional officials.

Mr Zainen, who until last year was the medical director of a hospital in Como in Italy’s north, said he was concerned about possible transmission of the virus on public transport to and from school and that the vaccine would be mandatory for students. Will do

England, where the new school term began this week without most of the control measures taken during the previous phases of the pandemic, is an outlier in Europe. Students and teachers are not required to wear masks. Children are no longer grouped in bubbles to limit contact between classes. Trade unions representing teachers have criticized the government’s approach as too lax.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government abandoned almost all legally mandated pandemic measures in England in July, telling people they must learn to live with the virus now that vaccines are preventing thousands of hospitalizations and deaths. UK authorities have asked schools to maintain some low-level control measures such as increased sanitation and keeping classrooms ventilated. They are also planning for frequent rapid testing of older school children to detect infections and suppress new outbreaks.

Last week, a government advisory panel of scientists recommended against vaccinating healthy children aged 12 to 15 years because the benefits were very limited, relative to the low risk of falling seriously ill with COVID-19. Government officials are still considering whether to offer shots to young teens to increase overall vaccination rates and limit the risk of disruption to education.

Other regions of the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, have set their own public-health measures and are moving in broadly the same direction as England. But in Scotland, where school started in mid-August, officials have recommended that schools maintain wearing masks, staggered start times and other control measures for at least the first six-week term, when new guidance is issued. To be done.

Scotland’s seven-day average of new daily cases stood at 6,400 on Monday, four times the level before the school reopened. But the rate of increase has been slowing since late August, indicating that the latest increase in cases may be subdued. Hospital admissions in Scotland, which has fully vaccinated 68% of its population, reached 200 a day in January. They are currently less than half the average.

Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, said he expects the reopening of schools to play some role in driving the caseload forward in the UK, but that there will be greater social interaction between adults now that most restrictions have been lifted. have been given. He anticipates another tough winter ahead, but thinks that vaccines will prevent another major explosion of serious illness and death.

“I think we are past the worst,” he said.