A representative of World Health Organization (WHO) in Islamabad have warned Pakistan government about schools still being open, in wake of rising cases of Covid-19. According to details, its been recommended to Pakistan govt to make a decision faster on closing down the schools, as schools are major gatherings source at this time, which can be fatal in terms of spreading the Corona Virus.
Concern here is that children at schools, due to being young and having good ammune system, may not show many symptoms but they can surely be a source of transmission to their elder family members, which may be more prone to the affect of the disease.
Government of Pakistan is all set to make a decision about closing the school or keeping them open on 23rd Nov. Idea being discussed is to give early and longer winter holidays and to compensate for lost time, in summers schools will be kept closed only for one month as summer holidays as compared to usual 3 months time period.
As far as I have heard and me being a parent of school going children can tell you that, at this point parent are also most concerned about the still opened schools and want the online classes to resume instead to kids going to school.
Though at this time according to the govt regulations, each class in each school have been devided in two groups. Only one group goes to school on any given day, making each group to go to school on alternating day. So, for some schools Monday to Thursday it is school day, in which each group gets to go to school two times and than Friday is the ‘online class’ day, in which all the children are available to take the class.