Jagobiao school assures students’ safety amid nCoV threat

A few minutes after class dismissal, pupils of Leonard Wood Elementary School in Barangay Jagobiao in Mandaue City take time to play in an open space outside their school. (Rosalie Abatayo)

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Leonard Wood Elementary School in Barangay Jagobiao in Mandaue City was supposed to celebrate the feast day of the Our Lady of Lourdes this Thursday, February 13, 2020.

But as threats of the 2019 novel coronavirus prevail, the school administration decided to call off their program and instead, let the students and teachers offer prayers inside their respective classrooms.

Some teachers, along with a local prayer leader, say the Novena at the grotto of the Blessed Virgin Mary to pay homage as her feast day approaches.

LWES, which has 856 students from preschool to Grade 6, is located only about 400 meters away from Eversley Child’s Sanitarium and General Hospital, which is one of the designated quarantine facilities of the Department of Health (DOH) for persons under monitoring (PUMs).

PUMs are those Filipinos and permanent residents of the Philippines that have a travel history to China, Hong Kong, Macau, and now including Taiwan, and are subject to 14 days of quarantine.

Despite being located near a hospital, Kathrina Candones, a teacher in LWES, said parents had been less worried lately because they have explained that those who are brought to the hospital are only under monitoring and are not even sick.

PUMs, as the government health agency earlier explained, are asymptomatic or does not manifest symptoms of the viral respiratory disease.

Candones, who is assigned to oversee the school clinic, however, assured that the school is maximizing its efforts to reduce the risks of 2019-nCoV for the school children.

“Among principal, iyang gi-cancel ang among activities and programs aron maka-avoid ang mga bata sa mga crowded places. Also, among flag raising amo na lang gi- simultaneous sa among mga classrooms [instead of doing it in the school grounds],” Candones told CDN Digital on Tuesday, Feb. 11.

Aside from the feast day program for the Our Lady of Lourdes, the school was also supposed to hold the Prince and Princess of Hearts this month.

Last week, the Department of Education ordered the suspension of major school activities such as the National Schools Press Conference originally slated this February 17 to 21, 2020 in Tuguegarao City amid the 2019-nCoV threat.

The Department of Education in Central Visayas (DepEd-7), in a memorandum on Jan. 24, also directed schools to strengthen measures against the 2019-nCoV.

“Ang mga teachers nagconduct pod sila og hand washing activities daily para ma-inculcate sa mga bata nga mas nindot gyud nga clean ug neat ang ilang lifestyle to prevent [contracting] the coronavirus,” Candones said./rcg