Top pediatrician backs school closures

The Head of Pediatrics Service of the Conde de São Januário Hospital Center (CHCSJ), Jorge Sales Marques, supports the idea that keeping schools closed for the time being is a very important measure to contain the spread of Covid-19 in Macau.
The physician said in an interview with Lusa Agency that there are objective reasons why schools have not resumed classes since the Lunar New Year holidays.
“In schools, people are completely crowded in small spaces; the gap between desks is extremely small,” the pediatrician said, advancing that such a fact significantly increases the risk of infection, especially when combined with long periods of time in the same classroom and lack of air circulation.
For the expert, who is part of the team of decision-makers in the government to determine the preventive measures to fight the virus outbreak, it is very difficult to forecast when schools will reopen, as currently, the health authorities still consider that Macau is in a critical period of the outbreak.
“If the classes are going to restart at the end of this month, or the beginning of the next month, this is a detail that for now is not under discussion, because we need more concrete data to conclude what will be the ‘ideal timing’,” he advised. RM