Students return to classrooms amid uncertainty over staffing levels

Thousands of students returned to school today but staff shortages caused by the COVID-19 spike forced some classrooms to remain online.

Monday marked the first day of in-person teaching after schools re-opened online last week after the Christmas holidays.

An agreement between the education ministry and unions saw teaching going online for the first couple of days after the holidays.

But according to Malta Union of Teachers President Marco Bonnici, some schools had to shift a few classes online on Monday because of staff in quarantine.

“The latest information we have is from Friday when some state, church and independent schools decided to retain some classes online on Monday because of teachers in quarantine,” he told MaltaToday. “So far, the situation appears to be no different from what it was just before the holidays started when we started experiencing a surge in COVID cases.”

The sheer amount of new coronavirus cases over the past month has caused major disruptions to companies, and schools are not an exception.

The latest statistics released by the health ministry show that there were 14,159 active cases on Sunday, which means that between 28,000 and 40,000 people are in quarantine alone due to being in a household with someone who is positive. The numbers increase further when taking into consideration direct contacts of positive cases who are in preventive quarantine.

Business lobby groups are clamouring for a further review of quarantine rules in the wake of a high uptake of the vaccine booster dose and the relatively mild symptoms of the Omicron variant.

Last week, the Chamber of Commerce requested that government adopt a pragmatic approach to limit the duration of quarantine solely to the status of the individual employee, saying it would otherwise be impossible for employers to contain abuse.

“The Chamber once again appeals for the public health authorities to consider how other countries are steadily reducing quarantine periods, and the extent to which this can be replicated in Malta, particularly given the high rate of uptake of the booster,” the Chamber said.

Public health authorities announced last week that a quarantine release letter will no longer be issued, and a positive COVID test result will include a quarantine order for the whole household. Under current rules, the duration of quarantine for every household member is dependent on the vaccination status of the positive person and one’s own vaccination status in the case of household contacts. The duration of quarantine will have to be calculated by the individual.