COVID-19 Protocols at School

14 February 2021

On the 12th of February, I took part in a very interesting conversation with Mr. Akin and Ms. McCarthy about COVID-19 protocols at our school.

Ms. McCarthy, as the Health and Safety Coordinator of our school, has a rather varied job, but currently her main focus is on tracking down the close contacts of any positive case and communicating with 'Sanidad', the Valencian Community's health organization. The series of actions that follow a positive case found at school, Ms. McCarthy explained, are that firstly, the parents of the year group are notified. The person’s close contacts (people were within 2 metres of each other with one or both of their masks off) of the positive case are then found and quarantined, usually for about 10 days. Sanidad must contact them and their families before they can return to school.

However, to prevent these cases from happening in the first place, multiple measures are taken by the school. Mr. Akin demonstrated how these reduce COVID-19 cases with a “Swiss Cheese” model.

Source: The Swiss Cheese Model of Pandemic Defense - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

The model shows that though measures such as ventilation, wearing masks, social distancing, etc, are alone insufficient to stop the spread of COVID-19, put together, all of these measures can significantly reduce it.

A final note from both Mr. Akin and Ms. McCarthy to students around the school is this: the measures implemented by the school are working effectively and the amount of cases at school is remarkably low. If you have any concerns or questions about this situation, Ms. McCarthy will be happy to help you; healthandsafety@laudeladyelizabeth.com.

Mari-Elena Arutyunova