Students at a classroom of Vo Thi Sau Primary School in Hai Chau district, Da Nang city (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNS/VNA) – As schools up and down the country return to in-person
learning for the first time in months, guidelines are being updated on how to
deal with the inevitable situation of positive cases being found in the
classroom.
The
Ministries of Health, and Education and Training have decided that only close
contacts of any positive cases found must self-isolate; the rest of the school
can continue as normal, after testing.
Under
the document, there are four steps that schools have to follow if COVID is
found in the school.
The
first step is to immediately notify the school’s Principal, the Steering
Committee and the Safety Team for COVID-19 Pandemic Prevention and Control.
The
school’s medical officer has to immediately transfer the COVID-19 student to
the school’s temporary quarantined room, along a separate route that has been
set up.
The
second step is that the school’s Principal, the Steering Committee, the Safety
Team for COVID-19 Pandemic Prevention and Control have to inform the
commune-level health station, or the local health facility that has been
assigned to support the school in the pandemic prevention and control to
co-deal with it.
The
third step is that the teacher in charge of the class must instruct other
students to stay at the class until the school’s Steering Committee for
COVID-19 Pandemic Prevention and Control finish the identification of the list
of students, who have direct contact with the positive case, following the
health ministry’s instructions.
The
committee must work with the commune-level health station of the local health
facility to provide rapid tests for all students in the class. If any other
cases of are found, they should be dealt with following the health
ministry’s instructions.
Students
who have not been in direct contact with the COVID-19 student, and provide a
negative rapid test result, will be allowed to continue school as normal.
Those
who had direct contact with the positive COVID-19 case will have to
self-monitor at home, regardless of if their rapid test result is
negative.
Those
who have received two doses of vaccine, or have recovered from COVID-19 within
the past three months, are required to take a real-time polymerase chain
reaction (RT-PCR) test on the fifth day.
If
the test result is negative, the student can return to school as normal though
the school and students’ parents have to continue monitoring the students’
health for the next five days. They must also ensure that everyone follows the
ministry’s 5K message: Khau trang (facemask) – Khu khuan (disinfection) – Khoang
cach (distance) – Khong tu tap (no gathering) – Khai bao y te (health
declaration).
The
students, who have direct contact with the positive case but have yet to be
given enough doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, are required to self-quarantine at
home for seven days and take a RT-PCR test on the seventh day. If the test
result shows negative, the students can return to school.
The
school and students’ parents have to continue monitoring the students’ health
for the next three days and guide the students to obey the health ministry’s 5K
message.
The
fourth step is to disinfect the classroom after moving all students, who have
not had direct contact with the COVID-19 patient, to another classroom.
The
document also said that if a student is found to be infected with COVID at
home, the parents have to immediately inform the school and the commune-level
health station. The school will make a list of students, who have had direct
contact with the and handle following the health ministry’s
instructions.
For
preschool students, if a case is discovered, all other students must
self-quarantine at home for seven days. The students are required to take
RT-PCR test on the seventh day. If the test is negative, the students can
return to school.
The
health ministry also recommends schools organise meals in the classroom for
semi-boarding students, instead of eating at the canteen./.
Source: VietnamPlus
