One COVID case to trigger distance learning for whole class

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 30 - The education and health ministries issued a circular letter late on Monday reimposing the rule for a whole class to go into distance learning if there is a case of COVID-19 among pupils or staff.
    The rule had been relaxed so that distance leaning only kicked in when there were three cases in a class.
    But the ministries have tightened things up again following a recent upswing in contagion.
    The circular letter said the incidence of cases among children/young people of school age had risen to 125 cases for every 1000,000 inhabitants, well above the threshold of 50 under which is considered possible to effectively trace and track cases.
    Antonello Giannelli, the head of the national association of school principals, said that, while teachers and school staff had managed to meet the challenges laid down by the pandemic, the same could not be said for the ministries' prevention departments.
    Giannelli said that departments "did not manage to guarantee speedy testing from the start and in many cases they did not apply the tracing procedure". Maddalena Gissi of the CISL trade union told ANSA that the union had requested a meeting with health ministry representatives, saying the circular letter had generated alarm among school staff and would create new problems for schools. (ANSA).