Sharjah, August 28: Private schools in the UAE will re-open as scheduled, senior health officials clarified on Thursday, assuaging fears that term could start late in precaution against the swine flu.
Officials also said that private schools had not been instructed to ask students returning from abroad to stay at home for seven days before attending classes.
The clarifications came at a seminar here, aimed at private sector schools, on the prevention and management of H1N1 infection. “We don’t want to create any panic and disrupt educational system,” said Dr. Ali Ahmed bin Shakar, Director General of the Ministry of Health and Chairman of the Technical Health Committee for Combating H1N1. Bin Shakar said that schools planning to postpone the reopening of primary classes had been asked not to do so.
“We know we cannot stop it, but we can at least try to prevent its spread by sharing our responsibilities,” he told a gathering of nurses, doctors, child protection officers, and representatives of various private schools countrywide.
It was stated that any decision to close particular schools — due to the incidence or spread of infection — could be taken by the health ministry only after a technical committee analysed the situation on a case-to-case basis.
Officials also dismissed reports that parents needed to submit an H1N1-free medical certificate for children who had spent their vacation abroad.
Though parents have to be updated about developments in school, managements are not allowed to write about number of suspected or confirmed cases, to avoid panic and confusion.
Further, action will be taken against schools that do not notify suspected cases to the preventive medicine department and the education district.
Anyone with flu symptoms, student or staff, will have to be under home isolation at least for seven days. This has to be strictly observed even if an infirm child is supposed to sit for an exam in the period. In rare cases, if fever lasts for more than a week, the patient also has to wait for 24 hours after the symptoms disappear to start school.
–Agencies