With less than a month left before the students return to school after the summer holidays, the debate about sanitary protocols for students and teachers. EKPA Epidemiology Professor Theodora Psaltopoulou spoke with ERT and provided answers to a question that had begun to worry parents and students.

“The most likely scenario, after 2.5-3 years with coronavirus, is now when there is individual responsibility and that both children and adults can either wear a mask or not. This is not only for our country, it is also European and international. We see that the CDC of America is no longer involved in the lockdown process, but in the use of the mask and the work of the masked man,” noted Ms Psaltopoulou and added: “The world is tired of all this management of the coronavirus, and now the teacher who has problems with health, can wear a mask himself to protect himself. However, before that we have 3-4 weeks, and the epidemiological picture that will exist and the possibility of gradual vaccination with a new vaccine will certainly play a big role.”

The EKPA professor of epidemiology has left open the possibility that students will not take mandatory self-tests. Regarding the test, he noted that “it is good to provide this opportunity to a certain extent in mass control disease.” “Of course, the Commission, and depending on the epidemiological picture in the country, will properly decide when this should be done and to what extent,” he said characteristically.

Gradual de-escalation of the epidemic wave

Regarding the epidemiological situation, he said that “we are in the stage of a gradual de-escalation of this epidemic wave, there are downward trends in the islands and in Athens. In Patras we saw an increase in the amount of wastewater, and in Athens we saw a stabilization towards a moderate increase.”

As Theodora Psaltopoulou noted, “the number of cases has increased. What we’re looking at, of course, is hospitalization, which is even higher than hospital discharges and deaths, which remain high. We have their deaths in people of the third and fourth years of life.