Gray: Children spared in Covid-19 pandemic, open schools
Head of the Medical Research Council, Professor Glenda Gray, says children have proven less of a problem during the Covid-19 pandemic and therefore schools should be allowed to open.
On Thursday the University of Free State hosted a webinar themed ‘Post-COVID-19, Post-Crisis’ with medical experts including Gray.
Gray believes pupils are better off in the classroom during the national lockdown.
“Unequivocally, as a pediatrician and a parent, I believe that schools should be open.
“Children have largely been spared from symptomatic or severe disease and that is for a couple of reasons. They have different immune responses to coronavirus and they probably have less viral load copies which makes them have milder diseases.”
Grades 12 and 7 have reopened following a short break.
Other grades will reopen on 24 August as the country fights rising infections.
“The morbidity and mortality has been quite different and so they are lucky, they have been spared of this epidemic.
“Children need to go to school for lots of reasons, we’ve seen a lot of depression at a global level, they’ve been deprived of stimulation, they haven’t had access to school nutrition and there’s a lot of depression they face," she adds.
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In a statement on Thursday, Mkhize said the total number of infected healthcare workers stands at 27 360. This is around 5% of the total workforce, compared to the global infection rate of 10%.
Gray says data has shown that schools play a lesser role in the transmission of Covid-19 infections.
“If you implement your non-pharmaceutical interventions, children should be well.”
By June this year, 10 children had succumbed to the virus.
The reopening of schools continues to be a contentious issue with some organisations calling for government to keep schools closed until after the peak of infections.
Listen to Glenda Gray below:
