Countries need not wait for widespread COVID-19 vaccination before reopening schools: World Bank

Current GK ( Master) International Affairs

03-Oct-21

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Evidence suggests that young children are less likely to contract COVID-19 and given the "safe" school reopening experiences in various countries prior to vaccine development, education systems do not need to wait for widespread vaccination before returning to offline schooling, according to the World Bank.
In a new policy note, the World Bank's Education team has noted that the experiences from countries around the world where schools have reopened suggest that with adequate mitigation strategies, schools pose low risks for disease transmission among students, staff, and communities.The team has also noted that one year after the pandemic hit, we know much more about both the virus and the disease and how to mitigate transmission and health authorities like the WHO recommend school closures only as a "last resort".
"Available evidence suggests that young children are less likely to contract COVID-19, less likely to become seriously ill or die and less likely to transmit the disease to others. Transmission within schools has been low, particularly for pre-primary and primary schools, and staff in schools are more likely to get the virus from other staff, not from students," the World Bank said.
According to World Bank's statistics, 80 percent of schools worldwide are in regular session. Out of those, 54 percent are back to in-person instruction, 34 percent are relying on mixed or hybrid instruction while 10 percent continue remote instruction and 2 percent offer no instruction at all.
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects.
Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States
President: David Malpass
Founded: July 1944, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States
Motto: Working for a World Free of Poverty