Precautions to Take in Classroom for COVID-19 Spread

As schools resume, it’s significant that precautions are taken both inside and outside the classroom to forestall the spread of COVID-19. This article plans to help educators with information and tips on:

• Physical distancing at school
• Practicing health and hand hygiene 
• Cleaning and disinfecting tips for the classroom 
• Actions to take if a student appears sick

A key lesson that we got to know during the pandemic is the significant role teachers play in the learning of children. As schools reopen, a ton will rely upon teachers to guarantee that kids will want to continue with their schooling in a protected and clean environment; and get more knowledge and abilities that might have been lost. 

As a teacher, knowing the realities won’t just ensure yourself yet additionally your students too. Know about counterfeit information and risky fantasies about COVID-19 circulation that are feeding fear and stigma. Student accommodation cleaning should be the top priority of the school administration. 

Some students may be getting back to school from families where they fake information about COVID-19. You should instruct them on current realities. School and nursery cleaning became mandatory. 

Understanding COVID-19, how it spreads, and how we can protect ourselves as well as other people is a significant initial phase in building up classroom procedures and protocols. Students need to get what it is with the goal for them to keep the guidelines. Pay attention to their interests and thoughts and answer their inquiries during a time of discussion. Talk about the various responses they might insight and clarify that these are typical responses to an unusual circumstance. 

Try to use data about COVID-19 from solid sources like UNICEF and WHO, just as the health authorities in your country. By remaining informed concerning the circumstance and following the recommendations of public health experts, we can secure our well-being and everyone around us.

Physical distancing at schools

With regards to physical distancing, it is significant that you build up some classroom guidelines as per the systems set up by your school’s organization, just as the conventions set up by your respective country’s Ministry of Health and additionally local health bodies and specialists.

 Suggested measures include:

• Maintain a distance of at least 1 meter between everyone present at school
• Increase desk spacing (at least 1 meter between desks), stagger recesses/breaks and lunch breaks (if difficult, one alternative is to have lunch at desks)
• Limit the mixing of classes for school and after-school activities. For example, students in a class will stay in one classroom throughout the day, while teachers move between classrooms; or classes could use different entrances, if available, or establish an order for each class to enter and leave the building/classroom
• Stagger the school day to vary the start and end times and avoid having all the students and teachers together at once 
• Consider increasing the number of teachers, if possible, to allow for fewer students per classroom (if space is available)
• Advise against crowding during school pick-up or daycare, and if possible avoid pick-up by older family or community members (i.e. grandparents). Arrange school pick up/drop off times differently (according to age group) to decrease any large gatherings of children at a given time
• Use signs, ground markings, tape, barriers, and other means to maintain 1-meter distance in queues around entrances
• Discuss how to manage physical education and sports lessons
• Move lessons outdoors or ventilate rooms as much as possible
• Encourage students not to gather and socialize in big groups upon leaving school grounds.

To do

To encourage your students to adhere to the guidelines, it very well may be useful to make a dos and dont’s list with them. Develop a list together around how students will welcome one another; how work areas will be organized; physical distancing measures during mid-day breaks.

Health and hand hygiene

Teachers play a basic part to play in guaranteeing students comprehend the precautions they should take to shield themselves as well as other people from COVID-19, and it is significant you show others how it’s done in the classroom. 

Handwashing is one of the least easy, more cost-efficient, and compelling methods of battling the spread of viruses and keeping students and staff safe.

Teach the five steps for handwashing

1. Wet hands with safe, running water
2. Apply enough soap to cover wet hands
3. Scrub all surfaces of the hands – including backs of hands, between fingers, and under nails – for at least 20 seconds. You can encourage students to sing a quick song at this point to make it a fun habit
4. Rinse thoroughly with running water
5. Dry hands with a clean cloth or single-use towel.

Encourage students to get into the act of routinely cleaning up and additionally applying hand sanitizers at key moments, like entering and leaving the classroom; contacting surfaces, learning materials, books, and in the wake of using a tissue to clean out their nose. 

Students ought to consistently hack and additionally sneeze into their elbow. In any case, if coincidentally they do as such in/on their hands, teach them to promptly clean up or apply hand sanitizer. In case students sniffle or hack into a tissue, guarantee that it is discarded promptly and that they clean up. Standardize incessant and routine handwashing. 

Indeed, even with clean hands, encourage students to try not to contact their eyes, nose, and mouth. Germs can move from those spaces onto their clean hands and spread around the classroom along these lines. 

Reinforce frequent handwashing and disinfection and obtain required supplies. Plan and keep up with handwashing stations with cleansers and water, and if conceivable, place alcohol-based hand sanitizers in every classroom, at doorways and exits, and close to lunchrooms and toilets.

To do 

• Creating a hand hygiene song to sing with your students
• Have students draw hygiene posters for the classroom
• Set a hand hygiene ritual. You can select a specific time during the day, such as before/after lunchtime for everyone to wash their hands/apply hand sanitizer
• Physically demonstrate how to wash your hands and apply sanitizer
• Keep a points system in your classroom, giving points to students each time they wash their hands or apply sanitizer
• Have students create a public service announcement on hand hygiene and place these posters/ announcements throughout the classroom or school in highly visible places.

Mask wearing in schools

If wearing fabric masks is suggested in your school, then ensure your students know about when they should wear masks and any connected school arrangements, for example, how to dispose of used masks securely to keep away from the danger of polluted covers in classrooms and playgrounds. 

Investigate with your students how to deal with and store masks appropriately. 

All efforts ought to be made to guarantee the utilization of a mask doesn’t meddle with learning. No kids ought to be denied admittance to training due to mask-wearing or the absence of a cover due to low assets or inaccessibility. 

If you have students with disabilities, like hearing loss or hear-able issues in your group, then, at that point, consider how these kids may pass up on learning openings in light of the debased discourse signal originating from mask-wearing, the end of lipreading, and speaker articulations and physical removing. Adjusted masks to permit lipreading or utilization of face shields might be investigated as an option in contrast to fabric masks.

Cleaning and disinfecting

Information is the most proficient method to keep up with the cleanliness and sterilization of your classroom. 

Day by day cleaning and sanitizing of surfaces and objects that are contacted frequently, for example, work areas, ledges, door handles, PC consoles, involved learning things, taps, telephones, and toys. 

Cleaning of surfaces and objects that are noticeably dirty. If surfaces or protests are grimy with body fluids or blood, use gloves and other standard precautionary measures to try not to come into contact with the fluid. Eliminate the spill, and afterward clean and sanitize the surface.

Tips for staff using cleaning materials

• Ensure you understand all instruction labels and understand the safe and appropriate use
• Follow the instructions on the labels
• Cleaning products and disinfectants often call for the use of gloves or eye protection. For example, gloves should always be worn to protect your hands when working with bleach solutions
• Do not mix cleaners and disinfectants unless the labels indicate it is safe to do so. Combining certain products (such as chlorine bleach and ammonia cleaners) can result in serious injury or death
• Diluted household bleach solutions may also be used if appropriate for the surface
• Check the label to see if your bleach is intended for disinfection and has a sodium hypochlorite concentration of 0.5%. Ensure the product is not past its expiration date. Some bleaches, such as those designed for safe use on colored clothing or for whitening may not be suitable for disinfection
• Household bleach will be effective against coronaviruses when properly diluted
• Follow manufacturer’s instructions for application and proper ventilation. Never mix household bleach with ammonia or any other cleanser
• Leave the solution on the surface for at least 1 minute.
•  

To do 

• Come up with some fun and creative ideas and rules with your students for avoiding high-risk and high-touch areas in their school/classroom. For example, not touching the railing while walking up and down the stairs, or keeping classroom doors open to avoid touching door-knobs
• Come up with some rules together as a group and write these down on a flipchart paper that you can later hang up in the classroom
• Create fun reminders/posters that can be hung in the hallways to remind others to stick to the sanitation rules.

School preparations and what to do if one of your students displays any of the symptoms

• Designate a specific area in the school (i.e. near the entrance) as a waiting room where children can wait. Ideally, this room should be well-ventilated. If there are school nurses available, it is recommended that they are designated staff in this waiting area. If students feel ill and/or exhibit symptoms of COVID-19, they should wait in the designated room to be picked up by their parents/caregiver. Afterward, the room should be cleaned, disinfected, and sanitized
• Provide the sick student with a medical mask if available
• Consider daily screening for body temperature, and history of fever or feeling feverish in the previous 24 hours, on entry into the building for all staff, students, and visitors to identify persons who are sick 
• Ensure a procedure for separating sick students and staff from those who are well – without creating stigma – and a process for informing parents, and consulting with health care providers/ health authorities wherever possible
• Students/ staff may need to be referred directly to a health facility, depending on the situation/ context, or sent home
• Encourage all students to stay home and self-isolate should they feel ill
• Develop a standard of operation if temperature screening is required
• Share procedures with parents and students ahead of time.

There have been a few reports of youngsters gaining a multisystem provocative condition, which is perhaps connected with COVID-19. Assuming you notice any carelessness, hypertension, or intense gastrointestinal issues in your understudies, it very well may be a sign that they are encountering multisystem fiery disorder and should look for clinical consideration right away.