Thai kids practice school return with sanitizers, screens and face shields

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai schools are holding practice sessions to prepare trainees for classes in the coronavirus period, offering lessons in health and social distancing to children as young as 3 ahead of next week’s return.

Schools across Thailand have actually been modifying class, dining halls and play locations to prepare for a phased return of students, in another step towards normalcy as the country nears one month without a domestic transmission.

Bangkok’s Wichutit School has given that recently been putting trainees through a day of drills in hand-washing, play ground rules and forming organized lines one metre apart.

On Tuesday, the school of more than 1,600 students invited children age 3 and 4 to put on masks and face shields for mock lessons in classrooms with barriers set up on desks.

They queued for temperature level checks and wash basins and were presented to hand-cleaning techniques and a new lunchtime routine of eating behinds screens.

” This is going to be something brand-new for the kids and they’re thrilled. They’ve been cooperative since moms and dads likewise practice the same new normal at home,” said the school’s director, Pornnicha Chatapun.

” It’s regular life for them now, and they won’t feel unusual about it.”

Thailand’s return to school is sooner than much of Southeast Asia, owing to its low infection numbers. Of its 3,156 cases, just 58 have actually passed away and 3,023 clients have recovered.

That compares to nearly 48,000 cases in Indonesia and near to 32,000 in the Philippines, whose president has actually pledged to keep schools shut until a COVID-19 vaccine is available.

Pareeyaporn Deesuer, whose boy participates in the Wichutit school, stated she was assured by its preparations.

” I was kind of actually worried, but once they are back at school there’s a sense of relief since of the school’s preventive procedures,” she said.