6 guidelines issued for schools to re-open in July

The Ministry of Public Health has given six guidance to schools throughout the country on how to protect against Covid-19 spreading between students and workers once they reopen. 

The government is proposing authorizing the opening of schools in infection-free areas in July. "The first issue to be emphasized is to deter the spread of Covid-19 and other germs by creating screening checkpoints at all entrances to test for fever and other symptoms, "said Health Department Director-General Dr. Panpimol Wipulakorn on Friday (May 29).

"In addition, schools shall conform to strict guidelines on regularly wearing face masks and washing hands, and have appropriate alcohol soap or hand-washing stations. "Panpimol said that each class should have no more than 20-25 students and ensure a gap of at least 1 meter between students. "This would present a problem to the schools because any classroom normally has around 40 students," she said.

"Schools that implement an alternate research schedule where half of the students research online at home while the other half attend school, and then turn at an acceptable interval.

"The second point is to plan lessons and learning materials suitable for both classroom and online learning, to ensure that no student education is disrupted during the Covid-19 situation," Panpimol said. Steps must be made to ensure that the students infected are not isolated from their peer community. The fifth aspect is to include school services to deter the transmission of the infection, including extra hand-washing facilities, cafeteria partitions and the rearrangement of classes, hallways and common areas to preserve social space.

"The sixth issue that school will concentrate on is the management of its expenditures because such steps would raise the financial pressure on the school and likely on parents," said Panpimol.

"Schools must ensure that they are financially stable until reopening such that they can guarantee smooth operations until the end of the semester.