SOME Chinese-Filipino schools in Cebu City are implementing room-to-room temperature checks and are requiring students and staff, who just came from China for the Spring Festival, to undergo a two-week quarantine, as precautions against the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).
Although there is no advisory to suspend classes, the Department of Education (DepEd) issued a memorandum to its division offices on the measures to take against the 2019-nCoV, said Salustiano Jimenez, DepEd Central Visayas officer-in-charge.
Judy Cachero, Cebu Cherish School (CCS) school principal, said they remain open.
“We are just a small school, with 214 students, and we know who went to China for the Chinese New Year celebration (on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020) since they informed us that they would be absent for several days,” Cachero said in a mix of Cebuano and English.
On Monday, Jan. 27, several Metro Manila schools suspended classes indefinitely to gather travel information on their students and staff during the Chinese New Year. These include the Chiang Kai Shek College, the Philippine Cultural College, the Tiong Se Academy, the St. Jude Catholic School, the Philippine Academy of Sakya and the Pace Academy.
Based on the CCS’ record, four of their students are currently in China. They’re scheduled to come back to school next week, she said.
Cachero said the school principal is trying to contact the students’ parents. They want the students to see a doctor when they return and to undergo a 14-day home quarantine before they can go back to school.
Cachero said they’ve already advised students to practice proper hygiene.
“For the entire student population, we are requesting them to wear masks. Some follow; some don’t. It is not compulsory, but we inform them to always clean their hands,” she said.
CCS has teachers from mainland China, but they arrived in the country last June yet and have not been home since.
When Jimenez learned of CCS’ move, he supported it. However, he said schools should allow their students to return to class if they are found to be healthy after the checkup and the quarantine period.
Sotero Cabanes, Cebu Eastern School principal, said they, too, did not suspend classes. Instead, he instructed school nurses to regularly monitor the temperature of students.
“What we did was monitor the students and survey their parents if any of them visited China during the break, but so far none of them did. As a measure, we teach them cough etiquette and remind them of proper hand washing,” he said.
Usually they have mid-semester enrolees, but, as of now, he said they have yet to receive an application.
He said they have around 800 students in basic education and around 1,000 students in the college department. Only 20-30 percent are of Chinese origin, he said.
Meanwhile, Jimenez said he has yet to receive reports of schools in the region suspending classes because of the 2019-nCoV.
He said the memo he issued tackled measures the school could adopt to prevent infection and actions to take if suspected cases were discovered in school. He also launched an advocacy campaign to stop the spread of panic among parents and students.
He encouraged Parents-Teachers Associations and other stakeholders to help DepEd and the schools monitor for the virus.
“It was on the memo that they have to report it right away so our department also can do something and help those learners if they have symptoms,” he said.
Jimenez said he hopes associations of private schools in the region will convene to discuss other measures to prevent 2019-nCoV infection. (WBS)