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Health protocols important for students in pilot of physical classes— OCTA

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RG Cruz and Job Manahan, ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Pupils observe minimum health protocols as they attend the first day of limited face-to-face classes at the Longos Elementary School in Barangay Pangapisan in Alaminos City, Pangasinan on Monday. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News" src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/news/11/16/20211115-face-to-face-classes-pangasinan-jc-235726400.jpg?ext=.jpg"/><figcaption>Pupils observe minimum health protocols as they attend the first day of limited face-to-face classes at the Longos Elementary School in Barangay Pangapisan in Alaminos City, Pangasinan on Monday. <em>Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA— Teachers in limited face-to-face classes should monitor children&#x27;s adherence to health protocols, most especially the use of face masks, amid <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/english-school-return-spurred-covid-children-cases-fell-adults-study-2021-10-13">reports</a> that a high number of recent COVID-19 cases in the United Kingdom were children, the OCTA Research group said Tuesday.</p><p>OCTA fellow Dr. Guido David noted that COVID-19 cases spiked among the youth after the UK opened up and eased their restrictions.</p><p>&quot;Now, what I just want to point out is that we are looking at data in the UK and of course in the UK, they opened up and there&#x27;s a significantly high infection rate among school-aged children, it&#x27;s about 15 times higher than adults,&quot; David explained before the House Committee on Trade and Industry. </p><p>&quot;I think this is something that we want to bring to the table and this is for 10 to 14 years old. And earlier it was mentioned there&#x27;s a concern about you know, children unvaccinated getting infected... that will also include children in the discussion&quot; he added. </p><p>Philippine authorities this week started the pilot implementation of face-to-face classes in over 100 basic education institutions, the first time in nearly 2 years since the pandemic hit. </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/11/01/21/list-schools-joining-pilot-face-to-face-classes">LIST: Schools joining pilot implementation of limited face-to-face classes</a></li></ul><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Photo from Dr. David" s="" src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/news/11/16/20211116-infection-rates.jpg"/><figcaption><em>Photo from Dr. David&#x27;s presentation</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>So far, only students from Kindergarten to Grade 3 and senior high school will attend physical classes, which will also see reduced class sizes. Schools have also retrofitted their facilities to implement health protocols and avoid possible spread of COVID-19.</p><p>But OCTA also reminded educators to keep an eye on students over health protocols to minimize the risk of infections. </p><p>&quot;Part of the recent cases increase in the UK was they&#x27;re no longer following the mask mandate so this is definitely something we have to, I mean we&#x27;re keeping the mask mandate and the minimum public health standards,&quot; David said. </p><p>&quot;It may be difficult to monitor the mask mandate for children so this is something of a concern of course, if we&#x27;re having limited face-to-face classes. this will be the responsibility of teachers who are in charge of the classes.”</p><p>The recommendation from the research group also came after a report that a 2-year-old contracted COVID-19 after supposedly being brought to the mall amid looser lockdown restrictions. </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/11/15/21/child-positive-for-covid-after-mall-visit-an-isolated-case">Child positive for COVID-19 after mall visit an isolated case: DOH</a></li></ul><p>The health department has reiterated that several factors could be considered with what happened, and the development should not only be attributed to the establishment. </p><p>Despite this, however, David said OCTA backed the deescalation of Metro Manila to Alert Level 2 amid the slowdown of COVID-19 infections nationwide, which they also credited to a relatively high vaccine coverage in major areas. </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/11/11/21/ntf-over-90-pct-target-in-ncr-fully-jabbed-vs-covid-19">NTF: &#x27;Over 90 pct&#x27; of target population in NCR fully vaccinated vs COVID-19</a></li></ul><p>&quot;We&#x27;re just talking about risk and we are already at the level where we were last year, around 2,000 cases per day, we&#x27;re not seeing a significant threat right now,&quot; the analyst pointed out.</p><p>&quot;We may see upticks due to mobility but as we can see, we&#x27;re already at a... close to plateauing as mentioned by Usec. De Guzman earlier.&quot;</p><p>President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday urged local government officials to impose restrictions on unvaccinated minors in public areas to protect them from being infected by COVID-19.</p><p>The Philippines has started the vaccination of minors aged 12 to 17 this month. The said sector numbers around 12.7 million. </p><p>New cases in the country fell below the 2,000-mark for the 5th straight day on Monday, with 1,547 newly-recorded cases. </p><div><strong>WATCH</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1830128" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

Philippine authorities this week started the pilot implementation of face-to-face classes in over 100 basic education institutions, the first time in nearly 2 years since the pandemic hit. 

Health protocols important for students in pilot of physical classes— OCTA

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Health protocols important for students in pilot of physical classes— OCTA

RG Cruz and Job Manahan,

ABS-CBN News

Published November 16, 2021 04:43 PM PHT

Read More:

COVID19

coronavirus

pilot face-to-face

face-to-face classes

physical classes

health protocols

UK

United Kingdom

OCTA

COVID19 among youth

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