Amid growing concerns on the health and safety of teachers and other non-teaching personnel, the Department of Education (DepEd) assured that measures to mitigate COVID-19 in schools and its offices are in place.
“We are taking all the precautions to ensure the health and safety of our personnel, especially the teachers,” Education Secretary Leonor Briones said during the “Handang Isip, Handa Bukas” virtual presser.
Briones added that in areas where there are still high cases of COVID-19 as declared by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) and the Department of Health (DoH), “teachers are also not allowed to go out” so chances of infection is relatively low.
The DepEd had issued the Required Health Standards which provides the several measures for COVID-19 mitigation in schools and offices.
This include the general health and safety protocols to increase physical and mental resilience, reduce transmission, reduce contact, and reduce duration of infection as well as the testing protocols, including early detection, referral process, testing and quarantine, contact tracing, and support protocols for COVID-19 positive learners, teachers, and personnel.
DepEd said that there are also support mechanisms for the DepEd Required Health Standards in the field such as the conduct of disinfection of learning materials prior to packaging and distribution and forging stronger partnerships with barangay councils that will help in facilitating the distribution and retrieval of modules to their barangays.
DepEd has also issued regional memoranda on strengthened management and response to COVID-19 and the implementation of alternative work arrangements on all levels of governance.
DepEd also formulated a contingency plan for COVID-19 pandemic and finalized the inclusion of COVID-19 protocols and other health-related reminders in learners’ package kits.