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COVID-19 RULES

Danish politicians call for children to stay at school after Covid-19 close contact

Politicians in Denmark say they want the government to scrap the current practice of sending children home from school if they have been in close contact with a person who has tested positive for Covid-19.

Danish politicians call for children to stay at school after Covid-19 close contact
Denmark currently sends children home from school if they have come into close contact with a confirmed Covid-19 case. Photo: Martin Sylvest/Ritzau Scanpix

Children who have come into close contact with a person confirmed to be infected with Covid-19 should no longer be sent home from school to isolate, according to a number of experts and politicians.

“People who are infected should go home of course, but it is not appropriate or proportional for us to send healthy children home,” Conservative party health spokesperson Per Larsen told newspaper Berlingske.

“If anyone has suffered due to Covid-19 restrictions then it’s children who have been sent home,” Larsen added.

READ ALSO: Danes felt ‘least impacted’ of Europeans during Covid-19 pandemic

Health spokespeople from both the Liberal and Social Liberal parties said they shared that stance, Berlingske reported. The parties hope to bring the government on board over the issue.

Sending children home from school after recent close contact with a Covid-19 case may no longer be a necessary measure against the pandemic, according to some experts.

That is because the infectious Delta variant is likely to result in most children under the age of 12 (who are not eligible for vaccination) being infected this year, according to comments given to Berlingske by Nils Strandberg Pedersen, former director of the national infectious agency State Serum Institute.

Denmark is set to change the official status of Covid-19 on September 10th, meaning it will no longer be classed as a “critical threat to society”, instead being rated an infectious disease which is “dangerous to public health”.

This means the government will lose the legal powers to impose bans on people gathering, demands for Covid-19 passes, and demands for face masks.

But the Health Ministry told Berlingske it would continue to follow Danish Health Authority recommendations on close contacts at schools.

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HEALTH

Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

As Italy’s new school year began, masks and hand sanitiser were distributed in schools and staff were asked to prevent gatherings to help stem an increase in Covid infections.

Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

Pupils returned to school in many parts of Italy on Monday and authorities said they were distributing masks and hand sanitiser amid a post-summer increase in the number of recorded cases of Covid–19.

“The advice coming from principals, teachers and janitors is to avoid gatherings of students, especially in these first days of school,” Mario Rusconi, head of Italy’s Principals’ Association, told Rai news on Monday.

He added that local authorities in many areas were distributing masks and hand sanitizer to schools who had requested them.

“The use of personal protective equipment is recommended for teachers and students who are vulnerable,” he said, confirming that “use is not mandatory.”

A previous requirement for students to wear masks in the classroom was scrapped at the beginning of the last academic year.

Walter Ricciardi, former president of the Higher Health Institute (ISS), told Italy’s La Stampa newspaper on Monday that the return to school brings the risk of increased Covid infections.

Ricciardi described the health ministry’s current guidelines for schools as “insufficient” and said they were “based on politics rather than scientific criteria.”

READ ALSO:

Recorded cases of Covid have increased in most Italian regions over the past three weeks, along with rates of hospitalisation and admittance to intensive care, as much of the country returns to school and work following the summer holidays.

Altogether, Italy recorded 21,309 new cases in the last week, an increase of 44 percent compared to the 14,863 seen the week before.

While the World Health Organisation said in May that Covid was no longer a “global health emergency,” and doctors say currently circulating strains of the virus in Italy are not a cause for alarm, there are concerns about the impact on elderly and clinically vulnerable people with Italy’s autumn Covid booster campaign yet to begin.

“We have new variants that we are monitoring but none seem more worrying than usual,” stated Fabrizio Maggi, director of the Virology and Biosafety Laboratories Unit of the Lazzaro Spallanzani Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome

He said “vaccination coverage and hybrid immunity can only translate into a milder disease in young and healthy people,” but added that “vaccinating the elderly and vulnerable continues to be important.”

Updated vaccines protecting against both flu and Covid are expected to arrive in Italy at the beginning of October, and the vaccination campaign will begin at the end of October, Rai reported.

Amid the increase in new cases, Italy’s health ministry last week issued a circular mandating Covid testing on arrival at hospital for patients with symptoms.

Find more information about Italy’s current Covid-19 situation and vaccination campaign on the Italian health ministry’s website (available in English).

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