Right now, schools are the most crowded places in the country. At a time when restrictions forbid allowing more than four people to be in a 100-square-meter (1,076 square feet) shop at the same time, dozens of students are packed into classrooms much smaller than that. No business would receive a "purple badge" showing it to be in compliance with coronavirus regulations if it operated under the same conditions in which students and teachers spend hours each day.
While the cabinet's corona team or the Knesset special committee on coronavirus met, members were protected by plastic shields between themselves, whereas our children in class with 35 or 40 other kids with almost zero distance between them. So why are we so surprised and horrified when schools become one of the first places to see a renewed spread of the virus?
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With the public scared, each school is adopting its own strategy to cope with the situation and reduce risk. Some schools have relegated the older students to online classes, while others have reverted to the "capsule" model of splitting their students into groups to reduce crowding. Still others are offering classes in shifts, which indicates that local authorities', schools', and parents' faith in the Health Ministry is wearing thin.
The return to school was preceded by long debates about whether children more frequently spread or contract the virus. The Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, which issued a widely-read report on the question, recommended that schools institute a program of oversight, monitoring, and testing.
But the moment the students were back in school, there was no mention of that recommendation, and the capsules were dumped in an instant, without any explanation offered as to why or what it would mean.
To keep local authorities from acting on their own and parents from deciding to keep their children home from school, the Health Ministry must come up with a reasonable and transparent plan that includes warning signs and clear goals about how to keep the school system going and how to cut off localized spreads in schools.
That hasn't happened for a month, but it's not too late. Initial steps of testing more students and teaching staff who were in contact with confirmed carriers, and for the first time defining a timetable and plan to carry out such tests within hours of a case being reported would be vital to building trust. Health Minister Yuli Edelstein's comment that "We won't rush to close schools" offers the confidence that is so important to both children and their parents who are trying to "live alongside coronavirus."
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