The rationale for the decision to open the schools on January 10 – All changes

The reasoning of the Committee for the opening of the schools from January 10 was presented during tonight’s briefing at the Ministry of Health, the professor of pediatrics Vana Papaevangelou.

He said that the Commission, taking into account the high prevalence of the Omicron variant, which is evident from the outbreak of the cases and the high transmissibility of this variant, discussed the changes in the epidemiology, the clinical picture of Omicron and reviewed the data from the cases in children during the period when the schools were open, that is, from September to December.

The Commission is monitoring the situation and will constantly review the data, stressed Ms. Papaevangelou, but estimated that “everything will go well based on what we have seen so far from the open schools.”

He pointed out that in Greece one of the most intensive and successful protocols is already followed internationally, with the result that during the autumn no significant spread of the coronavirus is observed in schools.

In fact, Ms. Papaevangelou stated that 84% of the cases in children were detected by self tests which offered an important service as “these children, although asymptomatic, were isolated from the school on time.” He added that in each case detected in schools in the last 4 months, the average of other cases was 1.4.

She made it clear that children are safer at school if they wear their mask and continue to do the self-test based on the protocol. “We decided to have an additional rapid test by all teachers and students 48 hours before the schools open,” he said.

Speaking about the Omicron variant, Ms. Papaevangelou said that we now know a lot more about its extremely high transmissibility but also that the incubation and duration of the disease is shorter, which disease is milder especially in vaccinated people who are less likely to be admitted to hospital. Also, as he stressed, there is currently no indication of serious morbidity from Omicron in children.

As he explained, as long as the explosive growth of Omicron in our country lasts, the implementation protocols will be updated for vaccinated students and teachers as well. So everyone will now do 2 self-diagnostic tests every week.

Also, the intensive daily check-up, if there is a case in the classroom, will concern the whole class and for five days will include 5 rapid tests for unvaccinated students and teachers and 3 tests for vaccinated students and teachers.

The reasoning of the Commission, as Mrs. Papaevangelou said, was to maintain the operation of the schools, something that is happening now in most countries.

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