In view of the increase in serious corona diseases among children in the USA, the German Teachers’ Association is calling on politicians to prepare for school closings. “As soon as the fifth wave reaches Germany, we have to be able to react quickly,” said association president Heinz-Peter Meidinger the Tagesspiegel. If distance and switching lessons as well as emergency care are necessary in January, the plans for this would have to be set in motion now. One could not wait until the next Prime Minister’s Conference on January 7th.
“The top priority must be to guarantee as much regular lessons as possible until the end of the school year,” said Meidinger. “That is why a short, hard school lockdown is better than having to keep closing individual schools over the coming months.”
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According to the current plan, lessons will start again in half of the federal states in the coming week, including in Berlin. There is compulsory attendance. Unvaccinated students and teachers have to test themselves daily during the first week of January.
The federal government wants to avoid another school lockdown. “The declared goal of the federal government and the federal states is and remains that the daycare centers and schools remain open and that classroom teaching, which is so important for children and young people, can continue to take place,” said a government spokesman in Berlin on Monday.
More and more children in the USA with Corona in hospital
In the United States, more and more children who have contracted the Omikron variant of the coronavirus are being hospitalized. The New York authorities noted “a four-fold increase” in Covid-19 hospital admissions for under 18s since the beginning of the month.
Klaus Reinhardt, President of the German Medical Association, spoke out against school closings. “At the moment I see no reason to think about a lockdown of the schools,” he said.
Enough data to correctly assess the course of the Omicron wave would probably not be available until the end of the first week of January. “But I assume that the booster campaign and the contact restrictions that apply from now on will do their job to contain the wave,” said Reinhardt. It is important that the current level of the booster campaign is maintained. “The roughly ten million unvaccinated adults should finally get vaccinated. This also contributes to child protection“Said the medic.
The seven-day incidence in Germany rose again on Monday after some time compared to the previous day. The Robert Koch Institute recorded an increase in the number of cases assigned to the Omikron variant.
