No mandatory mask usewithout required tests but also without quarantine for classmates of a sick student, it looks like this year will begin school yearfar from “hard” meters the previous two and a half years.

In a conversation with “K”, experts talk about the new and permanent nature that the measures applied in school classes should now have, which will concern not only protection against coronavirus but also in other respiratory diseases, as well as in any new emerging diseases.

“The rationale is to maintain a balance of class with society,” he explains. Ghikas Mallorca, professor in the Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology at the Faculty of Medicine of the EKPA and also a member of the expert committee, and adds that: “The classroom should be a reflection of society. When outside measures are relaxed because there is no danger and the pandemic is in remission, the same should be inside.

We are now in a phase where a large percentage of society has been vaccinated and/or sick and immunity is high. Also, let’s not forget the main goal of the school: the socialization of children. After all, the school class is a protected bubble, an “extended” family. So I feel that this year children will go to classes without the mandatory use of a mask, but also without a test for the corona virus..

“If now, as we enter winter, we see cases starting to increase strongly, then there may be a strong recommendation to use a mask.”

Regarding the protocol to be applied when there is a case in the class, Mr Maiorkinis says: “I also believe that the tests will only be activated when the child shows symptoms or does not feel well, even if someone or some students in the class get sick, others will not leave with a preventive quarantine, but only a specific student“.

The need to comply with the national vaccination calendar

In its turn, Mary Theodoridou, The president of the National Vaccination Committee emphasizes that what matters a lot, whether or not parents decide to give their children a coronavirus vaccine (which is not mandatory), as well as what will be decided on this year’s protocols in schoolsis for children to receive vaccines that are included in the mandatory vaccination program and are to some extent ignored.

As she says: “During the pandemic, visits to pediatricians have become less frequent. Especially in adolescent vaccines such as HPV or others that have booster doses, children are left behind. Parents should schedule them now and stick to the schedule reverently.”

“Society must learn to live with respiratory diseases”

Per Alcibiades Vatopoulos, professor of microbiology and member of an expert committee, the debate about sanitation protocols in schools must now change completely. As he explains: “We have entered the chronic phase of the epidemic, which will not end immediately. We will have an increase in cases at some point this winter, we know that.

Therefore, we need to stop talking about “what measures we will implement in the next quarter” and start discussing how we will transform the functioning of society in such a way that it works normally, not like an emergency, and at the same time is sanitary.