Health and the autonomous communities meet this Tuesday at the Interterritorial Health Council to agree on the conditions of the return to the classrooms after the Christmas holidays, which all agree that it must be in person despite the explosion of covid infections produced for the omicron variant. Among the hottest issues that the central executive and the regional governments will debate is the advisability or not of a change in the quarantines of the students, who until now had to be isolated for 10 days as soon as there was a positive case in the classroom if they were not vaccinated. The measure mainly affected the youngest, given that those over 12 years of age have been massively vaccinated. The draft of the covid protocol, advanced by Cadena SER And which will be debated this Tuesday in the Interterritorial Council, it is committed to exempting kindergarten and primary students from that period of isolation even if there is a contagion in the class and they are not vaccinated. The health experts consulted do not oppose this measure, but ask to monitor symptomatic children, since otherwise it can increase infections in schools. Meanwhile, parents ask for clear information to promote conciliation, which has been greatly affected by the numerous quarantines in the classrooms.
Although the proposal has not yet been approved in all of Spain, Andalusia has announced this Monday that it will not require from now on the quarantine of entire classrooms when it registers positive cases of students in bubble classrooms, reports Javier Martin-Arroyo. “In the event of any outbreak or positive case, the students will be isolated in coordination with the health center nurse,” advanced the Andalusian Minister of Health, Jesús Aguirre. Last Friday Madrid also announced that it would not isolate the entire class. While in Navarra, since the beginning of the year, when there is a positive case, all schoolchildren are screened with PCR and, if all the tests are negative, they continue in class.
Quique Bassat, pediatrician and epidemiologist, considers that “it is a reasonable measure in a context in which it is trying to return to normality”, but warns: “It would have to be very clearly defined what is done with children who present symptoms after a positive from a classmate, if a symptom monitoring is established, if they have the obligation to take a test or not, and also what will be done with the teachers, that is, if they will have to take a test ”. And he adds: “I am more concerned about the teachers than the students. I understand that teachers who are vaccinated should not quarantine, which is what the rule says, but they may also be more concerned because it is a more permissive rule that can allow the virus to circulate more in schools.
The also researcher of the IS Global points out that the measure would apply to both vaccinated and unvaccinated children – the doses for those over five years of age and under 12 started on December 15 – something different from what happens with the general population, given that the Unvaccinated adults have to do a seven-day mandatory quarantine if they are close contact of a positive. “I understand that the risk is assumed now because the risk of infections is lower and because children transmit the virus worse than adults, but there is a possibility that the incidence will increase in schools. Even so, it seems like a reasonable strategy, “he adds.
Pedro Gullón, member of the Spanish Epidemiology Society, believes that the proposal is “in accordance with the phase change in epidemiological surveillance, in which the disease is transmitted very easily, but which at the same time has milder symptoms due to discharge vaccination”. “This change is going to be updated in all protocols,” he adds. The Health proposal goes in this direction. “It does not surprise me seeing the trend in adults, where quarantine is only done by those who are not vaccinated, and isolates are shortened to seven days for fear of a collapse of essential services. In addition, as epidemiology services are saturated, it seems that there is going to be a tendency to stop tracking due to the volume of people involved with a variant as transmissible as omicron. That is why I see it logical that this goes in the same direction ”.
“When in the rest of the sectors the measures are being relaxed despite the fact that the incidence continues to be very high, maintaining the quarantines in the schools seems to me that it would be primal with the children. Also, what do you do with the children if they have to isolate themselves and the parents cannot quarantine? “, Adds the epidemiologist.
Reconciliation problems
It is precisely what the main associations of families of students in the country maintain. “The quarantines have been a great problem of family and work conciliation for families,” says Mari Carmen Morillas, vice president of Ceapa, the state federation of public school parents. “There have been families with confined sons and daughters because there was a positive in class, and since tests were not done, all students were forced to quarantine,” he adds.
Morillas has four children who have undergone several quarantines in recent months: “It would be better to test close contacts than quarantines. But above all, you have to look at the interest of the child: decisions have to be made based on health experts. If what you are going to do is that there are no quarantines with the excuse of facilitating conciliation, but you worsen the health situation, it is not worth us, because the first thing is the health of our children, “he continues.
Pedro José Caballero, president of Concapa —which brings together parents from Catholic schools—, asks the Ministries of Education and Health to report “transparently” to families about how the health situation is and whether it meets the conditions for the return of the students. “We do not know how the vaccination situation of teachers and students is and that generates many uncertainties. We are protectionists, and we want the greatest possible protection for our children, and the most dignified health measures possible ”. In his opinion, “the quarantines have worked very well, they have allowed presence in classrooms to be the general norm, and what we have to promote is that this presence is maintained within the possibilities. Although a partial quarantine is preferable to returning to telematics education, for which the teachers were not prepared ”.
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