The Department of Education (DepEd) confirmed on Friday that since the start of the school year in August, incidents of students, teachers, and nonteaching staff contracting COVID-19 had been documented in schools all around the nation.
“We already received reports all over the country that there are learners, teachers, and nonteaching staff who tested positive for COVID-19,” Michael Poa, spokesperson for the DepEd, said in a joint presser with the Office of the Vice President.
However, Poa did not provide a precise figure for the number of instances in public schools, merely stating that the data needed to be confirmed and that it was “anticipated.”
A DepEd source said that the number of incidents was kept a secret so that investigators could determine whether DepEd regional or division offices or even individual schools, were underreporting or failing to submit cases altogether.
According to a Metro Manila public school principal, their school was one of the few to record COVID-19 incidents in their division.
The principal said in an interview, “We were caught off guard for our first case because while we have an infection control plan in place, it’s really hard to implement it for the first time.”
The department assigned the job of developing infection control plans and containment methods to schools and division offices.
Children’s infections have typically been light or moderate up to this point, and even those who have cancer were still able to receive treatment.
Four out of five children with cancer who acquired COVID-19 in the first year of the pandemic were either asymptomatic or had tolerable symptoms, according to a 2020 study by the Philippine Society of Pediatric Oncology.
