HEALTH & SAFETY
Clean education Future-proofing educational settings against future pandemics and illness by Jarek Salek, Head of Engineering and Technical Operations at Uvisan
W
ith the vaccine roll-out now in full swing and the majority of the UK’s adult population having received at least one dose, schools are increasingly becoming an area of concern in the spread of Covid-19. Constant cases in schools are leading to entire year groups or
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class bubbles being sent home to isolate and one week in June saw 275,000 children off school because of infections, self-isolation and school closures. Although there are ambitions to vaccinate secondary school aged children before they return to the classroom in September, schools and other educational institutions should prepare to continue stringent hygiene
measures into the new school year and not gamble purely on students receiving vaccines to curb outbreaks. It is not clear when younger children will receive vaccines and there is hesitancy surrounding them being vaccinated at all. In addition, a future pandemic is no longer a far-off threat and robust hygiene policies will prevent other contagious illnesses from spreading in schools.
