Will Venezuela be able to eliminate quarantine restrictions with the return to classes of millions of students?

This week begins the wide flexibility in Venezuela and the classes are restarted in a blended form, interrupted since March 2020. This represents the beginning of «the new normality» in the different sectors of the South American country where restrictive measures were established to contain the contagion of covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.

The Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro, who established the flexible quarantine model for seven days and radical restrictions the next seven, announced last week that, as of this Monday, the phase of «broad and safe flexibility» would be entered, (as happened last year in December) as a way to encourage productive and commercial activities in the country.

This time, the novelty is that students will return to classrooms in a semi-virtual modality. At least two days a week, the students will attend class face to face with their teachers, after 19 months of remote activities. Previously, the Executive had made several attempts and consultations between parents and teachers to find out if they agreed that the students should return to the schools, but the peaks of the pandemic made it impossible.

Venezuela decides to return to partial classes

For this new school year, there are almost nine million students enrolled for primary education throughout the country, according to figures reported by Maduro. This data is broken down into 1.902.775 in Initial Education, 3,527,346 students from 1st to 6th grade and 2,398,285 in Secondary Education, explains a report by RT.

In Venezuela, more than 80% of the student population belongs to the public educational system and there are currently 29,103 educational centers active, of which 24,328 are public and 4,775 private.

Regarding the scope of the vaccination plan for teaching staff and those working in educational establishments, which was one of the priority sectors since March of this year, 84% of its workers have been immunized so far.

In the networks, images have been shared about the rehabilitation plans of the schools, which were closed for more than a year, and of the schools that still have some issues that have to be repaired.

Faced with this «new normal state», some parents and representatives have expressed their fear and skepticism about the respect of biosafety conditions in classrooms and the conditions of educational facilities, while others have described this decision as correct, despite the fact that there has been an increase in infections in recent months, especially in the Venezuelan capital region.

More than half of the population is vaccinated

The South American country reached 56% of the population vaccinated with the first dose, according to the Ministry of Health, and it is expected that, by the end of the month, this figure could be 70%. «The more vaccinated, the more normality and tranquility we will have», said the president in recent days.

Although at the beginning of the vaccination plan large lines were observed in health centers and sites destined for immunization, over the months, they have decreased and it is now possible to receive the dose of antigen without long waits. The rebound in cases in Caracas has occurred in parallel with a greater number of immunized people than in the previous peak, when the process of applying the vaccine against covid-19 was just beginning.

It is also expected that adolescents over 12 years of age will begin to be vaccinated this Monday, as part of the back-to-school plan, which in Venezuela begins in October and ends in July of the following year.

The third dose in Venezuela

In the same vein, the Executive and the Presidential Commission for the fight against Covid-19 announced that within three weeks, the vaccination of children three years and older could begin.

Regarding the third dose, the president said that it is being studied and that it can be carried out next year. «We are already making all the arrangements to have all the vaccines in Venezuela for the booster», he said.

So far, in Venezuela there are a total of 400,511 infections, 382,004 recovered patients and 13,697 active cases. The total number of deaths is 4,810.