How will the return of students to schools take place – Will the scenario prevail for individual responsibility for a mask and not mandatory self tests?

With less than a month to go before students return to school after summer vacation, the discussion about health protocols for students and teachers has already begun. The professor of epidemiology at EKPA, Theodora Psaltopoulou, spoke on the show “ERT Weekend” and gave answers to the issue that has started to concern parents and students, while currently the cases of coronavirus are increased. At the same time, he estimated that “we are moving towards variants with greater infectivity”.

“The most likely scenario, after 2.5 – 3 years with coronavirus, is now that there is individual responsibility and that there is the possibility for both children and adults to either wear the mask, or not wear it. This is not only for our country, it is also European and international. We see that the CDC of America is no longer entering the process of isolation as much as the use of a mask and the operation of the person with a mask” noted Ms. Psaltopoulou. He added: “The whole world is tired of all this management of the coronavirus and now it is up to them and the teacher who has health problems to wear the mask in order to protect themselves. Nevertheless, we have 3-4 weeks until then and the epidemiological picture that will exist will certainly play a big role and the possibilities of gradually vaccinating with the new vaccine».

The EKPA epidemiology professor left open the possibility that the students would not be subject to mandatory testing with self test.

“The test, it is good to give this possibility to a certain extent in mass control disease, certainly the Commission and depending on the epidemiological picture of the country will appropriately decide when it should be done and to what extent it should be done“, he characteristically said.

Regarding the epidemiological situation, he stated that “we are in a gradual de-escalation of this epidemic wave, on the islands and in Athens there are downward trends. In Patras we saw an increase in sewage and in Athens a stabilization towards a mild upward trend».

As Theodora Psaltopoulou said, “the cases have increased. What we are looking at, of course, is hospital admissions which are even more ticketed than hospital discharges and deaths which remain high. We have their deaths in people in their third and fourth years.”

“We go to variants with greater virulence, but it is not necessary that they have a more severe disease or have enough characteristics that differentiate them from the previous ones. An important element is the creation of a vaccine that covers all these sub-variants, even the future ones, so that the vaccine can be done once and for all, at least the scientific community is trying so that we can get rid of serious illness from the coronavirus».

He also emphasized that “we are sufficiently protected if we have had the 3rd dose (of the vaccine) and people over 60 and people with health problems if they have had the 4th dose. If they haven’t done the 4th dose, it’s a good idea to do it. Now we are of course waiting for September, October, November to be released, if it is approved in our country, a vaccine more adapted to the mutations that are circulating at this time».

“However, if we are at this age and have health problems, we should not neglect to get vaccinated now, since what we have is effective in terms of severe disease,” he added. He explained that “a person of 3 and 4 years of age may also have health problems, so they are quite fragile, vulnerable to infections and viruses not only from the corona virus but also from other viruses. These people need to be careful, we all need to be careful as we have come to individual responsibility but even more so these people need to be careful».

He pointed out that “There may be festivals, holidays, but they need to know that these are the most vulnerable people to serious illness. The mask is the most important thing right now that they have to protect themselves as well as rapid testing if they see that someone around them got sick or has symptoms. Now there are antiviral drugs that can help in the initial stage so that it does not develop into a serious disease».

“The problem with the coronavirus is that it is highly contagious in the pre-symptomatic stage, or even someone asymptomatic can spread“, said Mrs. Psaltopoulou.

Regarding children and adolescents, he stated that “they go through it with minimal or asymptomatic symptoms, but unfortunately in our country and internationally there have also been cases of children who had a more serious illness».

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