WORK IN SCHOOLS IN THE PANDEMIC - A PROPOSAL OF A METHOD FOR CHILDREN TESTING ON COVID-19 VIRUS

Aleksandar Zunjic

《IETI Transactions on Ergonomics and Safety》 4卷2期 (2020/12) Pp. 1-10

https://doi.org/10.6722/TES.202012_4(2).0001

摘要

In the conditions of the pandemic caused by the Covid-19 virus, the work of schools became directly conditioned by the possibility of students and teachers to attend classes, both due to their poor health condition and due to the possibility of transmitting the infection. The main focus of this work is the determination of the ability of children to transmit the infection, as well as to point out the omissions in testing school-age children, having in mind the need to create a more realistic picture of the number of children infected with the Coronavirus. The absence of symptoms or relatively mild symptoms caused by the Covid-19 virus in infected children under the age of 18 have led most health workers to conclude that the virus is much less prevalent in this population, and that children are not the primary carriers of the infection. However, although it may be true, it is premature to make such a conclusion, because it has not been supported by appropriate tests. Most of the research done so far has been based on a study of children in whom the Covid-19 virus has already been confirmed or suspected. However, the complete enigma remains the population of children in schools who has not shown the classic symptoms that are recognizable for this virus, or do not show any symptoms. Respiratory infection is just one of the symptoms that can be most easily noticed, which is characterized by the Covid-19 virus. However, this virus can attack practically any organ in the body, and it does not have to show any visible manifestation at the moment that would indicate the existence of this virus in a child. Having all this in mind, as well as the fact that the number of asymptomatic cases in schools is unknown, the conclusion of this paper is that targeted testing of children in schools should be performed, regardless of the presence of symptoms or their absence. This can be done in the quickest and easiest way by the method of a random selection of a school in a city and by testing all children in the observed school for the presence of the Covid-19 virus. If it turns out that the percentage of infected students is higher than expected, the same testing procedure should be repeated in other schools in a particular city. Initially, all larger urban areas should conduct such initial testing, and the test results will indicate whether there is a need to continue with this type of testing in smaller urban areas also, ie to expand the scope of testing on the basis of application of this methodology. This approach, basically based on the principle of random sampling, can in a relatively fast and efficient way provide a more realistic picture of the presence of the Covid-19 virus in schools and the potential for students to further spread the virus to households and other environments.

關鍵字

Covid-19 ； SARS-CoV-2 virus ； pandemic ； schools ； students ； Covid-19 testing ； ergonomics