Too much at risk to botch reopening of schools

A resurgent in Covid-19 cases and two weeks to go before schools reopen, students and teachers face challenges society has never seen before 

There are few impressions that defy reality more quirkily than the idea that summer breaks pass more quickly almost every year that passes. This year’s school break, and all its extraordinary events and abnormal length, will end this day fortnight when scores of thousands of school children begin to return to the classrooms they fled almost six months ago. They face circumstances no one in this society has faced before. Resurgent Covid-19 figures — our highest single-day total of new cases since May was reported over the weekend — intensifies a huge challenge for school communities.

Our escalating figures reflect trends right around the world, even in countries that had seemed to have suppressed the virus in recent months. France is one such country where new measures are expected to stem the pandemic in workplaces. Paris and Marseille were declared “red zones” as the country recorded another new high in post-lockdown infections. Once best-in-class New Zealand yesterday reported 13 new cases in 24 hours as their first outbreak in months grows. South Korea reported 279, the highest since March. Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was direct when defending her state’s border closures: “Until there is a vaccine, life will not return to normal,” she said yesterday. These country-by-country figures led to a WHO assessment that almost 300,000 people worldwide tested positive in 24 hours, reportedly the highest daily increase so far.