The deputy and senator-elect of the Socialist Party, Juan Luis Castro called on the Ministers of Education of the outgoing and incoming Government, to “avoid a greater evil of contagion by the Omicron pandemic” and consider March as a month of transition, without the obligation of the return to face-to-face classes, a measure that is no longer open to discussion.
The Socialist parliamentarian recognized that in the country the Omicron variant has had a slight downward trend. However, he warned that in countries like England and the east coast of the US, when face-to-face classes were resumed, there was a regrowth of up to 50%. According to him, “if this is repeated in Chile, it would mean between 15,000 and 20,000 cases per day.”
“In practice, if we have an obligation to attend classes in person and there are full school days, it implies that it is inevitable that there will be higher levels of contagion in minors. In fact, in the pre-school population it reaches 65% of vaccination. To the above, it is added that hospitalizations have increased in minors by more than 100%,” stressed the parliamentarian.
In his opinion, “there is a world of vulnerability in boys and girls. We all agree that minors are in class in person, but March is a decisive month and therefore, the logical thing is to mitigate this phenomenon, giving mixed modality, face-to-face and virtual. Because otherwise, we are going to sustain a high rate of cases, as a result of returning to classes.”
That is why he reiterated the call to the authorities to avoid a new wave and to consider, at least, March as a transition month, “without a strict obligation that the government authorities have imposed with the return to face-to-face classes,” he pointed out. .
