Health experts based on the current situation have said that there is no need of school closure at this moment despite panic among parents over the coronavirus spread in Bangladesh.
The new virus – COVID-19 – which emerged from Chinese city of Wuhan is a global public health emergency since January. It has so far claimed 4,369, lives globally affecting 121,206 people in 118 countries.
Bangladesh confirmed the first three cases on March 8 with two of them coming from Italy and the other person being a family member of them. There is no report of further transmission in the country.
Schools in countries badly affected by the pathogen, including Italy, parts of China, have been closed. In Bangladesh, people are raising the demand for school closure in the social media. Some jittery parents are not sending their students to schools.
“I’m not sending my child to school. I’ll not send him next few weeks,” a parent of an English-medium school in Dhaka, who wants not to be named, told Bangladesh Post. “I think the government should keep schools closed for several weeks”.
Should the government close schools now over the coronavirus? Bangladesh Post tried to find the answer.
“We’re not recommending school closure at this moment because we don’t have transmission of the disease in the community level,” Prof Dr Meerjady Sabrina Flora, Director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), told Bangladesh Post.
“No new patients were found in the country after the initial three, and they (the affected persons) too are doing well,” she said.
“There is no new case. In Dhaka, we don’t see any local transmission. We’re monitoring the situation in the district from where we got those (three) patients, and there is no further transmission. So I think it’s not the time to close schools,” Prof Flora, a public health expert, said.
She, however, said they would send guidelines to schools for what kind of measures they should take.
Prof Mahmudur Rahman, a former director of the IEDCR who sat in several WHO emergency committees, told Bangladesh Post that the current situation does not demand school closure.
“I can tell you based on the information we’ve so far received from the government that there is no need of school closure at this moment,” he said.
“But the final decision should come from a technical committee who will look into the details of the virus spread and its implications. But if the transmission starts at the community level, I’ll recommend keeping schools closed”.
Both of them, however, urged people to avoid gatherings as a precautionary measure.
Meanwhile, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday issued a new guidance to help protect children and schools from transmission of the COVID-19 virus.
Guidance includes practical actions and checklists for administrators, teachers, parents and children.
The guidance provides critical considerations and practical checklists to keep schools safe. It also advises national and local authorities on how to adapt to and implement emergency plans for educational facilities.
The guidance includes recommendations to mitigate against the possible negative impacts on children’s learning and wellbeing in the event of school closures.
This means having solid plans in place to ensure the continuity of learning, including remote learning options such as online education strategies and radio broadcasts of academic content, and access to essential services for all children.
The plans should also include necessary steps for the eventual safe reopening of schools.
To make sure that children and their families remain protected and informed where schools remain open, the guidance calls for providing children with information about how to protect themselves; promoting best handwashing and hygiene practices and providing hygiene supplies; and cleaning and disinfecting school buildings, especially water and sanitation facilities; and increasing airflow and ventilation.
The guidance, while specific to countries that have already confirmed the transmission of COVID-19, is still relevant in all other contexts.
Education can encourage students to become advocates for disease prevention and control at home, in school, and in their community by talking to others about how to prevent the spread of viruses.
Maintaining, safe school operations or reopening schools after a closure requires many considerations, but if done well, can promote public health.
For example, safe school guidelines implemented in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone during the outbreak of Ebola virus disease from 2014 to 2016 helped prevent school-based transmissions of the virus.
UNICEF is urging schools – whether open or helping students through remote learning – to provide students with holistic support.
Schools should provide children with vital information on handwashing and other measures to protect themselves and their families; facilitate mental health support; and help prevent stigma and discrimination by encouraging students to be kind to each other and avoid stereotypes when talking about the virus.
The new guidance also offers helpful tips and checklists for parents and caregivers, as well as children and students themselves.
The government has opened a new dedicated hotline – 01944333222 – to provide any kind of information related to coronavirus.