Hygienic station hl. The city last week recommended, along with the city council, that schools gave children a week off on Monday and Tuesday this week, extending the autumn holidays, which should help slow the spread of the disease. The director of Prague hygiene, Zdeňka Jágrová, pointed out that it is necessary to reduce the morbidity to the lowest possible level, because it is clear that the number of infected will increase in the coming period. According to the councilor for education from the Prague City Hall, Vít Šimral (Pirates), about 40 percent of primary schools and 60 percent of secondary schools in the capital gave principal leave to children.

According to pinformation services of the Ministry of Health currently 239 new cases newly infected in the last 7 days and over 4,900 positive people. On Monday, after a meeting of the crisis staff, the Minister of the Interior Jan Hamáček (CSSD) announced that next Monday it will be tested in eight districts, where the disease exceeded the set limit, the situation is now the worst, especially in the Olomouc and Moravian – Silesian regions.

Over 500 children had to be quarantined

In Prague 6, the infection appeared in ten of the fifteen schools, which are contributory organizations of the city district. Councilor for Education Marie Kubíková (ODS) last week pointed out that within 15 days, the number of quarantined children increased from 138 to 582 and the covid appeared in 27 classes. In Prague 6, the schools decided not to give director’s leave due to the fact that the children’s parents did not have enough time to provide them with babysitting.

The city district decided to test on its own fists mainly to further the spread of the disease. City Hall will pay for one round of testing from the budget reserve, which will take place exclusively with the consent of the children’s parents. “We are happy to support our schools in this, the means for testing – in total it is more than 1.5 million crowns – we will release from the budget reserve, which was previously created just for the solution of the coronavirus situation, “she added.

We do not want to close schools again

City Hall management would appreciate it if the regular testing of children by state-sponsored returns returned. “We are for regular testing of students to prevent the spread of the disease. We cannot get back into a situation where schools are closed. However, decision-making and financial responsibility lies with the state, which must come up with a systemic solution, “said Kubíková.

The municipality will negotiate with the ministry

Similarly, on Monday after the meeting of the City Council, Prague Councilor Vít Šimral also supported himself. He pointed out that the child population is the least vaccinated and that children are often asymptomatic carriers. They can easily carry the infection into the family. “We need to make schools a place for covid to spread.” he noted. The municipality, together with the Association of Regions of the Czech Republic, plans to negotiate with the Ministry of Education and Health on Tuesday on further steps and measures that should be introduced in schools. He also wants to negotiate with a hygiene station and VZP. “Our main requirement is repeated testing in schools and adjustments to quarantine measures,” he said.

“Jaundice form of quarantine”

It should be negotiated whether the so-called “jaundice formula” of quarantine should not be introduced. “This means that children who have not tested positive normally attend quarantine, but they are spatially and temporally separated from the rest of the team, “she explained. For example, they could go to school later and move only in limited areas of the school.

The councilor pointed out last week that one positive child has 17 negatively tested and a large proportion of children who have to be quarantined are not ill, but still have to stay at home.

The municipality wants to demand from VZP an increase in the number of paid tests for PCR testing in schools, which, according to Šimral, are used by more and more schools in Prague. Since the ministry’s negotiations, he would like to see the release of about 4 million tests from the state material reserves warehouse, which were just for testing in schools. “We would like to come to the conclusion from November 1 that not only the 8 most affected regions in the Czech Republic, but also the territory of the capital will be included in the comprehensive testing,” he added.