F0 appeared, schools in Vinh city adapted to teach normally

Hung Binh Primary School is the first school in Vinh City to have an F0 case in the school, just 2 days after students returned to in-person learning. The patient is a 4th grader, identified as having been infected by her mother who had previously been on a business trip to Hanoi.

Hung Binh Primary School (Vinh City) is divided into 5 streams for students to enter class, ensuring minimal contact between students in different classes. Photo: MH

The appearance of F0 cases inschoolThis is an undesirable thing for the school community and for the majority of parents and students. However, this is unavoidable and schools seem to have prepared mentally before deciding to let students return to school.

As the homeroom teacher of this special class, teacher Hoang Thi Thuy said: When we received information that a student in the class tested positive for F0, although we were very worried about the student, we still tried to stay calm and determined to be mentally strong. First, we encouraged the student's family, then informed the parents in the class so that everyone would not panic and come up with an appropriate solution.

At that time, although the children were still young and had just returned to school, I was still quite assured because they strictly followed the 5K regulations when returning to school.

All students and teachers wear masks during class. The school has established a self-management team and a rapid response team to regularly check and remind students to strictly follow the 5K. Photo: MH

Immediately after receiving this information, Hung Binh Primary School also temporarily suspended the class for one day and conducted contact tracing and testing for both teachers and students. After receiving negative results, the entire class was switched to online teaching. Other classes continued to attend school as usual. At the same time, the school continued to strictly implement epidemic prevention measures.

Teacher Tran Thi Viet Ha - Principal of the school said: After nearly 2 weeks of the first case, the school is still safe and no new cases have appeared. This is a lucky thing for teachers, students and our school is temporarily assured because we have strictly implemented epidemic prevention regulations, minimizing cross-infection in the school.

In schools, classrooms are arranged to be spaced apart. Photo: MH

Ha Huy Tap Secondary School also had its first case on the last day of the first week after students returned to school. The patient was an 8A student, discovered after a family member was infected and at the time of the illness, the student had been attending school for a week. Immediately after the F0 student appeared, all students in the class also switched to online learning.

Teacher Ha Thi Hoa Binh - Principal of Ha Huy Tap Secondary School said: The characteristic of our school is that we have a lot of students, with nearly 1,900 students, so even though we have implemented school and class distancing, the number of students gathering in the school during each class session is still very large.

Fortunately, when students returned to school, the school strictly implemented social distancing, limiting the number of students gathering in large numbers, such as not organizing outings in the schoolyard, students only interacting in small groups, and students strictly wearing masks in class, so even though they had been studying together for nearly a week, there was no second case of infection in the school.

Due to the large number of students, Ha Huy Tap Secondary School disinfects and measures body temperature in each classroom before students enter. Photo: MH

Currently, the school is also developing a plan to organize online semester exams for 8A students, while the remaining classes are still teaching and learning stably. The school's teachers are also familiar with online teaching, so even though they have to teach both online and in-person, it still does not affect teaching and learning.

Vinh City is the last locality in the province to organize students to return to school directly for primary school students and students in grades 6, 7, and 8. After nearly 2 weeks of school up to this point, the whole city has had 17 F0 students, including 9 F0 students in 6 primary schools and 8 F0 students in secondary schools.

Among these, the school with the most F0 cases is Nguyen Truong To Secondary School with 4 students in a class, the rest of the schools only have 1-2 students and there are almost no cases of cross-infection in the school.

Information from schools also said that currently the health of F0 students is basically stable, there are no serious cases, some cases are asymptomatic. At this time, schools are also completing the organization of the first semester exams and all classes with F0 students will be organized online exams.

Recess during the epidemic season of students at Ha Huy Tap Secondary School. Photo: MH

Although the number of F0 cases in schools increased immediately after students returned to school, fortunately, the city has basically controlled the spread of the epidemic in schools, at least limiting cross-infection and still organizing normal teaching and learning.

Previously, to organize students to return to school, the city also required schools to develop detailed plans for organizing teaching and learning during the epidemic and have plans to organize teaching and learning when there are F0 and F1 students, so schools have been proactive when there are cases.

Vinh City is one of the first localities to complete vaccination for secondary school students. In the photo: Vaccination for students of Le Mao Secondary School. Photo: MH

Ms. Hoang Thi Phuong Thao – Head of Education and Training DepartmentVinh cityalso said: When deciding to let students return to school, we also anticipated all situations and determined that it was difficult to avoid the situation of having F0 students. However, up to this point, thanks to the strict implementation of the 5K regulations at school, especially the health check of students, body temperature measurement and mask wearing, schools have basically controlled the epidemic. This is also an important and fundamental solution to help prevent epidemics at school effectively.

The province currently has 333 F0 students, including 57 preschool students, 75 primary school students, 163 secondary school students and 38 high school students. The number of F0 teachers is 60 people.

Number of high school students: The whole province has 106,255/110,817 high school students who have completed the first dose and 41,000 students who have completed the second dose. Localities are continuing to vaccinate secondary school students with the first and second doses.