The City confirms that face-to-face classes will begin on February 17: 'We want to avoid irreparable damage'

11/20/2020 9:50 AM

• Clarín.com

• Society

Updated 11/20/2020 10:18 AM

The day after the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef ​​questioned the closure of schools due to the coronavirus pandemic, the City of Buenos Aires ratified that on February 17, with the start of the 2021 school year, they will begin face-to-face classes. 

"We always said that we wanted to re-link children with the school space and their peers because the damage of not doing so is potentially irreparable. That is the decision. It concerns mental health.

, conditioned to the epidemiological situation at that time, "said Buenos Aires Minister of Health Fernán Quirós.

During the press conference in which he reported on the epidemiological situation of the City, the official highlighted the re-linking tasks that have been carried out for a few weeks, after the authorization of the national government after several disputes and controversies.

"The classes will have a face-to-face dynamic and with protocol care that the epidemiological moment we are experiencing at that time requires, either because it is a very controlled epidemic curve or because we are in a potential regrowth," said Quirós.

Almost at the same time that the press conference was taking place at the Buenos Aires government headquarters, the Minister of National Education, Nicolás Trotta, spoke, who once again defended the official measures.

"

 and projected "for

according to the epidemiological situation of each jurisdiction."

And he listed: "They began in August in San Juan, which failed to sustain the return, but Formosa did. In territories such as the City of Buenos Aires, non-school educational activities can be held."

"We generate all the protocols and a guide to promote the return to face-to-face and we are going to promote it in the different jurisdictions," Trotta insisted.

The UN and UNICEF warning

This Thursday the World Health Organization (WHO)

and considers that confinements can be avoided if protection measures are increased.

"We must ensure education for our children," said the director for Europe of the WHO, Hans Kluge, highlighting that children and adolescents are not the main drivers of contagion and that the closure of schools is not effective.

Kluge also pointed out that lockdowns are "a waste of resources" and that they cause many side effects, such as damage to mental health or increased gender violence, and that if the use of masks exceeds 90% among people, they would not be necessary.

The return to the presence in the City.

Photo: Luciano Thieberger.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) for its part warned this Thursday in a new report about the growing consequences for children as the COVID-19 pandemic progresses.

While symptoms among infected children remain mild, the number of infections in this population group is increasing and the long-term impact on the education, nutrition and well-being of an entire generation of children and young people can alter their lives. lives, said the report titled "How to Avoid a Generation Lost to COVID."

Regarding school closings, the report says that while children can transmit the virus to each other and to older age groups, there is strong evidence that, with the implementation of basic safety measures, the net benefits of maintaining open schools outweigh the cost of closing them.

"Schools are not the main driver of community transmission, and children are more likely to contract the virus outside of the school setting," the report emphasized.

JPE