Back to school for pupils in the Canary Islands

More than 324,000 students and 30,000 teachers will go back to school in the Canary Islands today, although it is marked by some uncertainty of a spike in new infections after 18 days of coexistence with families and the increase in positives in all of the Islands, ironically, except Tenerife.

So far, the rates of infections in educational centres have remained between 0.1 and 0.4% of the total number of students and teachers, so they have been ruled out as sources of spread of the virus.

The Infant, Primary and Secondary schools of the Canary Islands have passed the first term with hardly any cases recorded. According to the latest data, a total of 39 groups of Infant, Primary, Secondary and Baccalaureate educational centres had Covid cases and were in quarantine, which represented 0.2% of the total throughout the Canary Islands. Active cases among teaching staff totalled just 33 out of more than 30,000 teachers, and students 262 out of more than 324,000 enrolled.

Originally schools were meant to restart on Friday, January 8th, however, it was delayed until today after considering the epidemiological circumstances. The department headed by Manuela Armas, has asked for prudence and responsibility, and does not plan any type of screening or similar actions at this moment in time.