School Threat images of the corona did not materialize in Helsinki’s schools – Chief physician compares infection rates to last January

Helsinki there has been no significant difference in the total number of absences in primary schools in January compared to January last year.

Although the number of corona cases reported in Helsinki has clearly increased due to the virus’s own micron transformation, there have been no mass influx of teachers and students in the early part of the year.

The information is from the chief physician responsible for epidemiological activities in Helsinki From Sanna Isosomp. According to Isosomp, there may have been several patients with coronavirus disease in the individual classes at the same time.

Information is significant, because before the start of the spring semester, there was a heated debate about whether students should go to a distance school. For example, the OAJ, a trade union in the field of education, considered contact teaching to be a high risk.

“It is very unfortunate that a large part of the school population and teachers will get sick and then the schools will not be able to be kept open,” said the chairman of the OAJ. Olli Luukkainen in the beginning of January.

Read more: “It is unfortunate that a large part of the school population and teachers get sick and then the schools cannot be kept open” – OAJ still wants children to go to distance school

Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa have followed a jointly agreed line in their pandemic activities, according to which restrictive measures are primarily targeted at groups of the population other than children and young people. That is why, for example, distance school has been considered a last resort.

School children was to begin testing in schools on a regular basis. However, corona tests ordered by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (STM) for schools in Helsinki have not yet been received. STM has left corona test order to the Service Security Center.

“We don’t know at what point the tests will come,” Isosomppi communicates.

In practice, corona tests could be in schools after about two to three weeks. As the tests are not available enough at one time, they may be targeted, for example, according to the disease situation.

According to Isosomp, no national guidelines for testing schoolchildren have yet been received in Helsinki schools.