Parents urged to comply with schools' virus-prevention efforts

Education authorities are asking parents to cooperate with schools on coronavirus prevention measures when students resume normal classes starting next week.

"If your child has symptoms of discomfort, such as fever, please bring them to a doctor and return them to schools when they have recovered, which means 48 hours after the fever disappears or 72 hours after vomiting and diarrhea stop," Lu Jing, director of the Shanghai Education Commission, told a news conference on Friday.

He also asked parents to wear masks when dropping off or picking up students at school gates, and leaving as soon as possible to reduce gathering.

Wu Fan, deputy director of Fudan University’s medical college and one of the public health experts working on controlling the coronavirus in Shanghai, called on parents not to conceal children’s health problems.

“In addition to being responsible for the health of your children, their teachers and classmates, you’re also required to do so by laws and regulations,”  said Wu.

“You may think it’s not a big deal to conceal symptoms. But if it causes a coronavirus outbreak in the school, you will affect a large group of students and be held legally liable for the incident,” she said. “So please show your children a good example and be responsible for the whole society. Keep them at home if they have health problems and report it to teachers.”

Meanwhile, she also asked parents to pay attention to health conditions of not only children, but also family members and other close contacts.

“Parents should pay close attention to children’s health condition at this special time,” she said. “It’s not rare for children to get fever. If they show symptoms like fever, cough and diarrhea, parents should bring them to the hospital and report to teachers. They should stay at home.”

She also asked parents to pay attention to senior family members who live with them.

“Some senior people may not have left home but they are vulnerable and might get sick due to the virus you bring back home,” she said. “So if they get sick, you should also keep your children at home. Some parents might be worried children will lag behind in studies in such a situation, but you have to think about the health of the children and your responsibility for the whole school and the society.”

Close attention should also be paid to people who have close contact with families, such as domestic helpers, Wu said.

She asked parents to remind children to protect themselves when commuting with public transportation.

“Schools have arranged anti-virus lessons after they return to schools, and parents should continuously remind the children the right way of self-protection,” she said. “Parents should also make sure children wash their hands immediately after arriving home.”

But Wu also asked parents not to panic when children develop fever or cough.

“We have been receiving sick reports from education authorities for a long time and the historical data shows that about 2 percent of school faculty and students were absent due to sickness, most of them with symptoms of fever and cough,” she said.

She said sometimes children show a high temperature but don't have a fever.

“The weather is getting warmer and some children might be active and stay under the sun for a long time during class breaks and this can cause high body temperature,” she said. “So we have to bring them to a quiet place for rest and then check their temperature again.”

If any child does have a fever, schools have already set up observation sites to separate them from other students and call parents to send him to a fever clinic.

If several students show symptoms on the same day or consecutively in several days, the schools will quarantine the children on the site and contact education and disease-control authorities. Medical and CDC staff will conduct examination, investigation and disinfection and decide how to deal with the emergencies accordingly.