Over 80 schools have canceled classes due to illness

The situation in schools is rapidly getting worse due to respiratory diseases. The number of sick children is increasing. For now, approximately 80 kindergartens and schools have closed and more will do so.

The number of closed schools increased twelvefold from week to week. During the penultimate week of November, 29 kindergartens and three elementary schools were closed. In the week at the turn of the months, hygienists already cancled classes in 47 kindergartens and as many as 36 schools.

Healthy children learn online in some schools

Even though a school might be closed, some schools decided to provide at least online learning for healthy children.

If the child does not participate in distance education, although the school for healthy children organizes it, he or she will need an excuse from a doctor or a parent. It still applies that a parent can excuse a child from school for up to five days even without a doctor's note.

Tough flu season

Both epidemiologists and pediatricians expect that after two years of the Covid-19 pandemic and measures that protected people from other diseases, the current flu season will be worse.

According to hygienists' information, at the turn of the months 52,897 people had an acute respiratory disease other than confirmed Covid-19. This amount exceeded the amount of such patients at the end of 2021, 2020 and even at the end of the pre-pandemic year 2019.

Last week, it was 73,048 people.

"I don't remember that there were so many sick children at once," Janka Necpalová, principal of the Žilina school on Limbová Street, said. The school was closed this week because almost 200 of the 470 children were sick.

When and who can cancel classes

The principal can cancel classes if more than 20 percent of the students are absent from school due to illness. Before closing the school, he or she will contact the regional Public Health Authority office, which will set a time frame for how long it recommends closing the school.

"We start from the incubation time of the given disease," Martin Kapasný, a regional hygienist in Žilina, said. This is the number of days from when a person becomes infected to the moment when symptoms of the disease appear, for exampl, fever, cough or fatigue.

According to Kapasný, hygienists tend to cancel classes for five to seven days, including the weekend, in case of flu and similar illnesses. They proceeded similarly in the Žilina Region with several schools - 33 kindergartens and 44 schools are closed here so far.

"During that time, we will interrupt the transmission of the disease between children and its occurrence in the school will decrease," Kapasný added.

As Ján Mikas, Chief Hygienist, claims, longer class cancelation (up to Christmas vacation) is not expected.

After five days, during which the principal closes in-person classes on the recommendation of a hygienist, healthy children automatically return to classes.

If the situation worsens again later, the school management can limit classes again.

In addition to the influx of children with respiratory diseases, pediatricians also report a worse course of some diseases.

Pandemic allowance is still valid

Even though the number of hospitalised patients with Covid was ten times higher a year ago, when 398 people with confirmed Covid-19 were in hospitals, the emergency situation approved by the government at the time of the pandemic continues in Slovakia.

Parents are still entitled to the so-called pandemic leave allowance (OČR). This is also the case if the headmaster, following the recommendation of hygienists, cancels in-person classes at the school due to the flu or other respiratory illness.

Parents who take care of children under the age of 11 are entitled to the pandemic nursing allowance. "However, if the insured treats a sick child up to the age of 16, i.e. a child whose health has suddenly worsened and the physician has therefore confirmed the need for treatment, the parent is still entitled to the pandemic nursing allowance," the Social Insurance Agency portal writes.

However, caregivers must request the nursing allowance from the insurance company through a completed form.