Opening the schools will start a fourth wave in Hungary?

The Teachers Trade Union says that the reopening of schools on April 19 might result in a fourth wave of the coronavirus in Hungary. Until April 11, 162 thousand nursery workers, as well as school and kindergarten teachers will get at least their first jab. However, that means that most of them will not be fully protected against the deadly disease. Furthermore, 213 thousand people are working in this sector, so more than 50 thousand will not receive any vaccine because most of them would not like to be inoculated.

According to Euronews.com, the Teachers Trade Union would like to protect the parents from a fourth wave. Though most of the teachers will get their jab, the majority of the parents will not, so if their children bring the infection home, a fourth wave might start in Hungary.

Tamás Totyik, a vice-chairman of the trade union, highlighted that the government would like to reopen shops after Easter, allowing only one customer per ten square metres. However, an average classroom is 40 square metres. In an ordinary Hungarian elementary school, there are 26 students in a classroom. Meanwhile, in a secondary school, this number is 32. In a secondary grammar school, this number increases to 35.

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According to him, keeping the necessary distance in schools is impossible. That will result in a quick spread among students, who will bring the infection home, the trade union said. Furthermore, most of the teachers will get their second jab around the time of graduation, in May, so they will not be fully protected against the infection.

PM Viktor Orbán said before in the state media that the first jab already gives significant protection.

Furthermore, he asked all teachers to take into consideration the interests of the parents. 

He said that he understood that everybody would like to get the vaccines as soon as possible and then wait for a while to become fully protected. However, people have to work, so schools have to open because parents cannot bring their children anywhere, ha added.

The Teachers Trade Union highlighted that the government started to inoculate teachers too late. They said that

the Orbán-administration should have started the process at the beginning of March to make reopening on April 19 safe.

Lálszló Miklósi, the chairman of the Association of Hungarian History Teachers, said that a teacher had three times more tasks in the framework of digital education than under normal circumstances. However, he says that

schools should remain closed,

with which – based on their survey – 2/3rds of history teachers concur.

Source: Euronews