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Kids in Jordan head back to classrooms

By AFP
February 08, 2021

Amman Hundreds of thousands of students in Jordan went back to classrooms on Sunday after almost a year of school closures due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"I am very happy to see my friends and teacher again," said seven-year-old Mecca at a girls’ school in Jabal Amman, in the centre of the Jordanian capital. "I was bored at home. Being at school is better," the smiling girl said.

Schools and universities in the country have been shut since mid-March due to the pandemic. Kindergarten and early elementary school levels, as well as students in their final year of high school, went back to classrooms on Sunday, the first day of the school week in Jordan, while Christian schools will reopen for those students on Monday. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees also reopened its schools on Sunday for 28,000 students.

An education ministry spokesman said more than 773,000 students were going back to the classroom this week. Fadi Ismail, a teacher at the Shukry Shaashaa school in Amman, was also keen to return.

"I am for in-person learning because in the classroom, I can see right away if a student is following," he said. "In class, there is a constant exchange... It’s very different from studying on the (online) platform."

The government decided to reopen schools after a drop in the number of Covid-19 cases over the past four weeks. Another 1.4 million students across the country will return gradually until March 7, according to the education and health ministries.

Bassam Hijjawi from the national epidemics committee said Sunday that the gradual return to schools would take place within "a strict health protocol". He said all students were required to wear masks and observe physical distancing in the classroom, with two square metres provided for each desk.

The committee would evaluate the health impact of the return to classrooms over the next two weeks before confirming the return of other students, he said. But some students said they preferred to keep learning at a distance.

"I’m afraid that by going to class, I’ll infect my parents with the virus," said Khaled al-Kurdi, an 18-year-old in his final year of high school. "And at distance, the courses are recorded so I can go over them until I have learnt the material," he added.

Jordan has officially registered a total of 335,154 coronavirus infections and 4,379 deaths. Vaccinations began in January and so far more than 40,000 people have received a first injection.

Meanwhile, The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine fails to prevent mild and moderate cases of the South African coronavirus strain, according to research reported in the Financial Times. But in its study, due to be published on Monday, the pharma group said it could still have an effect on severe disease -- although there is not yet enough data to make a definitive judgement.

None of the 2,000 participants in the trial developed serious symptoms, the FT said, but AstraZeneca said the sample size was too small to make a full determination.

"We may not be reducing the total number of cases but there is still protection against deaths, hospitalisations and severe disease," said Sarah Gilbert, who led the development of the vaccine with the Oxford Vaccine Group.

It could also be "some time" before they determine its effectiveness for older people in fighting the strain, which is a growing presence in Britain, she told BBC television. "We might have to put it together from a number of studies," she said.

Researchers are currently working to update the vaccine, and "have a version with the South African spike sequence in the works" that they would "very much like" to be ready for the autumn, said Gilbert.

UK vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said the government’s strategy to combat the spread of the strain was to continue with its mass vaccination programme "as rapidly as possible" as well as "hyper-local surge testing" in areas where it is detected.

In a related development, China delivered 600,000 doses of its Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine to ally Cambodia on Sunday, making the kingdom the latest country to use Chinese jabs despite concerns about their efficacy compared to Western alternatives.

Cambodian leader Hun Sen announced last month that China would donate one million doses of its coronavirus vaccine to the kingdom -- which will cover 500,000 people because two doses are required. On Sunday, the strongman premier greeted the arrival of the first batch at Phnom Penh’s international airport. It’s unclear when the remaining doses are scheduled to touch down.