“Too early” to open schools and day-care centres

Instead of reopening our schools and daycare centres next week, we should first look at how the big European countries are approaching this matter.

This is the view of Shahin Gaïni, an infectious disease specialist at Tórshavn’s National Hospital, regarding the government’s plan to partially reopen schools and daycare centres on Monday.

In an interview with Danish newspaper Politiken, Gaïni expresses concern about what he calls insufficient justification for opening up these institutions at this early point.

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”Is it a way to allow parents to go back to work, or is it an attempt to spread the virus among those who can tolerate it, ie. children and youths? This hasn’t been made clear enough,” he says.

Gaïni says, however, that he understands why politicians would want to send children to school and daycare so that parents can go back to work.

“This is a tough decision for our politicians, juggling health, social and economic considerations, but I don’t think it’s right to do this just because this is what is being done in Denmark and Norway."

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Although no new corona cases have been registered since 6 April, Gaïni thinks it is far too early to dismiss any further risks of infection.

“Rather than making a rash decision like this, we should wait and see what is being done in other countries in Europe, because the Danish and Norwegian COVID-19 strategies are highly different to ours.”

Translated by prosa.fo