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Even with the confirmed Covid-19 infection of a child under the age of ten, no more class segregation.
In AHS kindergartens, elementary schools, and lower middle and lower school grades, there may soon be changes to quarantine requirements. According to a recommendation from the Ministry of Health from the previous week, children up to ten years old can only be classified as “Category II contact” with a classmate or in the group with a confirmed case of Covid-19. Then it will no longer have to be automatically quarantined.
The usual procedure in school today is different: if a child is diagnosed with Covid-19 infection, it is secreted. All classmates are also quarantined as “Category I contacts” for ten days after the last contact with the infected classmate.
Category II contact
Based on the ministry’s recommendations, this could be handled differently in the future. Then only the affected child is separated. “In view of the low risk of transmission by those under 10 years of age, the class or group association or caregivers in educational institutions up to the 5th grade can only be classified as a category II contact,” it says there. It is not necessary to separate them.
However, these children must undergo a PCR test. If more than two children test positive in the same class or group less than ten days apart, or if this is the case of a teacher or caregiver, the health authorities can quarantine the entire class or group or parts.
On the other hand, there should be no changes in the procedure for children older than ten years: here, all close contacts must continue to be segregated according to the specifications of the health authority.
Not yet implemented in Vienna
In Viennese schools, where the majority of infections are recorded, these recommendations are not yet applicable, according to the Directorate of Education. At the moment, all elementary school children are still segregated into a class with a positive Covid-19 test.
On the other hand, the classmates of a child or adolescent (regardless of age) who are initially only classified as a suspected case are not usually sent to quarantine. Here, only care is taken to ensure that the class or group in question does not mix with others, for example in gym, craft or religion classes.
The Health Ministry also advises against another measure that is widespread in many schools: so-called symptom tests, such as taking the temperature in schoolchildren. This brings relatively little because, on the one hand, fever is a symptom of many diseases, and on the other hand, many children experience few or no symptoms even with Covid-19 infection. “For the reasons mentioned, it is recommended to refrain from routine symptom tests in educational institutions.
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