Spanish schools to reopen despite the increase in coronavirus cases

THE Spanish government have today announced that, despite recording the highest number of coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, schools will reopen across the country.

The announcement comes as the Minister for Health disclosed an increase of 9,658 positive cases in the country. However, it is important to note that today’s data includes an increased update in COVID-19 testing. Due to an administrative issue, the data also includes two days of data from Valencia.

It is reported that a productive meeting was held to define a plan to enable Spanish schools to reopen with a range of new measures put in place.

All students between the ages of six and 16 will be mandatorily required to attend school and the meeting between Spanish ministers, and members of regional government, lays out the new measures that they will follow on their return to school as follows:

• Student temperatures will be required to be taken at the start of each day (at school or at home)
• Students will be required to wash their hands at least five times per day
• An interpersonal distance of 1.5 metres is to be maintained at all time
• Mandatory mask wearing for all students older than six

The plans laid out hope to ensure that safe practices will mean that disruption to student learning will be minimised as much as possible.

Should a student test positive for coronavirus any student or teacher within their class or who have had the opportunity to be in close contact will then have to isolate for the required period of time. However, a whole school will not be shut down unless there is indisputable evidence of an uncontrolled outbreak of the virus. What measure will be used to define “uncontrolled contagion” is as yet unclear.

Health Minister, Salvador Illa, at a news conference today, said, “I can’t conceive that parents would bring their sick children to school,”

The Health Minister has been investigating a number of methods for parents of isolating children to be able to receive some form of payment for required leave, however no final plans have been identified as yet.

Other safety measures will also be implemented, such as decreased class sizes, however, these measures are being left to the regional governments to decide. It is said that individual schools will also play a role in deciding additional measure appropriate to their student cohorts and environment.

It is unsure how parents and teachers will react to the new particularly with the announcement of such a large increase in positive cases and the potential for high levels of local contagion.