School children and COVID-19: how to respond and what to do according to protocol in Spain’s Andalucia

THE Regional Ministry of Education has published a guideline for parents and educational centres to follow in cases of suspected COVID-19 in children.

Measures for the prevention, protection and surveillance of COVID-19 in educational centres as published in the BOJA of September 2 are as follows:

• Take the child’s temperature before leaving for school.
• If the child has fever, cough or difficulty in breathing, the minor is to remain at home.
• There is no need to phone the school, or use the parent’s messenger group, which only adds to the confusion and can trigger alarm.
• The protocol of the Ministry of Education establishes that it is the school that contacts the family to obtain information about the absence of the child in case of quarantine, suspicion or confirmation of COVID-19.
• In the case of suspicion, it will be the paediatrician who will determine if the infection is COVID-19 or any of the other autumn and seasonal colds, flu and other respiratory tract diseases.
• If confirmed, notify the school so that the prevention protocol can be implemented.

Detection of fever or cough during school hours

• The child will be isolated in a well ventilated room.
• The school will contact a paediatrician or specialist who will investigate the symptoms and provide a diagnosis.
• The school will also contact the legal guardians of the child so that he / she can be taken home.
• In the case that there is a classmate or teacher of the isolated child also showing symptoms of COVID-19, this person will likewise be isolated and a doctor contacted.

Scientific evidence suggests that the greatest likelihood of contagion in children occurs in the family home.

Children are also less likely to become infected, less likely to develop severe symptoms and less likely to transmit the virus to other children and adults.

In fact, staff and teachers, as adults, are more likely to transmit it to each other.

Evidence suggests that a household’s COVID-19 infection rarely starts with children; on the contrary, grown-ups bring it into the home.