PAHO Advises Caution in Reopening Schools

• The Americas continues to be the epicentre of the pandemic and more than 101.0Mn children across Latin America and the Caribbean have been hit harder by school closures than their peers in any other region.
• Considering this, school reopening is a priority for governments, but the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is recommending that member countries adopt a phased approach to reopening schools for face-to-face learning in the 2021/22 academic year, in light of the still evolving coronavirus pandemic.
• This approach should take into consideration the local epidemiological situation, which can change rapidly. Proper surveillance will also be critical to ensuring that reopening is done safely and that the learning environment remains safe.
• Before reopening schools, countries must ensure institutions can maintain COVID-19 prevention and infection control measures, including physical distancing, hand hygiene, and mask-wearing. This will help to prevent schools from becoming a catalyst for more COVID-19 community transmission.
• The safest way to reopen schools rests on countries’ abilities to suppress transmission through vaccination and the implementation of public health measures. The Jamaican government has begun to vaccinate children. However, if it is unable to vaccinate a significant portion of the student population and to contain the recent spike in the infection rate, it could delay the restart of in-person teaching.
• The potential persistence of school closures will continue to depress traffic activity adversely affecting the transportation sector and companies like TJH. It would also continue to affect revenue generation for some manufacturing and distribution companies such as Honey Bun and Purity which rely heavily on sales to schools.

(Source: JIS News & NCBCM Research)