JAKARTA– Ilmia Rahayu’s days have been filled with worries, since the Indonesian government decided to restart face-to-face learning in schools, in the first week of Jan, amid a surge in COVID-19 cases triggered by the Omicron variant.

She does not want her only child, Zaki Alhaq, a fifth grader at a private elementary school in Jakarta, to leave their house, to take an offline learning class even though the school guarantees that health protocol there is strictly enforced.

“Children’s immunity is not as strong as the adults. Some of them haven’t got vaccinated, and some have just received the first dose not long ago,” Rahayu told Xinhua, adding that, COVID-19 vaccinations for children aged six to 11 just started on Jan 12.

The country recorded a spike in COVID-19 cases in recent days, from 772 cases on Jan 17 to 8,077 10 days later, with peak transmissions expected in mid-Feb to early March, the Health Ministry said.

At least 90 schools in the capital, Jakarta, have to be temporarily closed again, as several students and their teachers are infected with COVID-19.

Several schools have even closed their offline learning classes twice in two weeks, as new cases of COVID-19 were found in students and teachers, the Education and Teachers Association’s national coordinator, Satriwan Salim, said.

“This is not effective. Schools open and close, open and close. Who knows how long it will be,” Salim said, “Learning activities should be done with a blended or hybrid scheme, with 50 percent of students studying at school and the rest studying at home.”

Five professional medical organisations have sent a letter to the government, to evaluate full face-to-face learning activities, especially for students aged less than 11.

The Indonesian Cardiologist Association’s Chairman, Isman Firdaus, said, children are vulnerable to severe complications, if they are infected, including multisystem inflammatory syndrome.

The COVID-19 Task Force’s spokesperson, Wiku Adisasmito said, schools can close offline learning classes for two weeks or more, if any COVID-19 infection cases in the schools are found.

According to Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, face-to-face learning activities will still be imposed at this time.

“We have no plans to stop face-to-face schooling for now,” Pandjaitan said, at a virtual press conference days ago.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK