site.btaIncreased Morbidity Should Not Be Grounds for Quarantining Whole Classes, School Principal Argues

Increased flu and COVID-19 morbidity should not result in quarantining classes and schools. The Health Act and its implementing regulations need to be changed urgently. Otherwise, school principals will be obliged to quarantine classes and switch to online teaching even if just one sick student had contact with the class, says Diyan Stamatov, head of the Union of Employers in the National Education System in Bulgaria and Principal of the Acad. Mihail Arnaudov School in Sofia.  

According to Stamatov, if school principals do not impose a quarantine, they would be breaking the law and subject to serious penalties.

The Health Ministry and the Education and Science Ministry must urgently, in the next days, come out with a clear and ambiguous position and regulations, he said.

The Health Ministry proposed in July amendments to the Health Act, which would scrap the quarantine requirement for infected people and people who have been in contact with them. Parliament has not yet put the proposed changes to the vote.