Verified By Dr Battu Chaithanya November 13, 2021
With many schools in the country now offering in-person classes, as a parent, one of the biggest challenges you must be facing is keeping your child/children safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. You may have concerns because the pandemic is not over yet, and newer variants of the virus (more contagious than the original one) have been reported.
As you prepare for your children to return to their classrooms, there are measures you can take to help keep them healthy. And, fortunately, some guidelines can help children and teachers stay safe from COVID-19 at school.
Ways to keep your school-going child as safe as possible
As you prepare to send your children back to school, be sure to reinforce the standard COVID-19 precautions like wearing a face mask, maintaining physical distance and washing hands regularly with soap or with sanitiser.
Know and understand the safety measures being implemented at school
It is important to ensure that your child’s school is adhering to all the recommendations set forth by government health officials — implementing all the precautions and taking all the measures needed to keep your child safe.
Schools should reach out proactively about all the safety measures, but ensure you get answers to the following few questions:
Physical Distancing
Schools should encourage physical distancing by implementing the following measures:
Hand Wash
Schools should also encourage students & staff to follow hand hygiene practices, checking if children are wearing masks, and covering their noses and mouths while coughing & sneezing.
Do encourage your child to develop daily before and after school routines that foster healthy habits like keeping a backup mask and hand sanitizer in the morning and washing their hands as soon as they come home.
Screening
Schools should take daily temperature readings of their students as a part of COVID-19 symptom screening.
To limit the spread of COVID-19 infection as well as other infections, children should avoid school and other activities and stay at home if they have any signs of infection or a fever.
Conclusion Communities, families and schools should work together to ensure students can safely remain physically together in the school where they need to be. Everyone eligible should get COVID-19 vaccination, including children (when it is made available). In addition, children should also get the flu vaccine, including other routine childhood and adolescent vaccines to prevent infections. When everyone does their bit, the whole community wins.
Consultant Interventional and Transplant Pulmonologist, Apollo Hospitals, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad