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A teacher in Vienna demonstrates the use of a corona rapid test in front of schoolchildren (archive image)
Photo: Georg Hochmuth / dpa
The return to face-to-face teaching in schools has been a contentious issue in Germany for months.
While critics warn that the educational institutions could become new contagion hotspots, the Robert Koch Institute recently came to the assessment that schoolchildren "tend not to play a greater role as a 'motor' for the infection process."
There is also new data from Austria, where face-to-face teaching has been running again since February 8th.
Around 1,500 schoolchildren have since tested positive for the virus, the Ministry of Education announced.
1.4 million rapid tests in schools - in one week
The number of cases there is apparently increasing: In the third week alone, there were 904 - 619 among students and 285 among teachers and administrative staff, it said.
A total of 1.4 million tests have been taken in schools since Monday.
“It's good we find the falls.
That's the only way to stop the schools, "said a spokesman for the ministry.
All 1.1 million students have to check themselves for any infection at school at least once a week with a so-called nose drill test.
A smear is taken from the front of the nose.
Because the primary school students are in face-to-face classes all week, they have to test themselves twice a week.
Meanwhile, the Ministry draws a positive conclusion: the children would "get along incredibly well with it."
In the event of a positive result, the students concerned would be looked after in a separate room and the parents and the health authorities would be informed.
The following PCR tests to check a result confirmed the positive self-test in 80 percent of the cases.
Austria had already carried out continuous corona gurgle tests at numerous schools last year.
According to this, there were relatively few infections in schools;
Students and teachers were roughly equally affected.
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