ZAGREB, 4 Nov 2021 - Education Minister Radovan Fuchs said on Thursday that closing schools will not contribute to stopping the virus from spreading, underscoring that only an adequate vaccination rate can help achieve that.
"I will repeat for the 155th time, closing schools will not contribute to stopping this situation God knows to any extent. That can only be done with vaccination," Minister Fuchs told reporters after a ceremony at which Law School of the Unversity of Zagreb marked its day.
If not enough citizens are vaccinated, underscored Fuchs, "we will continue to have reservoirs that will keep generating the virus from the unvaccinated population."
Fuchs believes that there is no need to adopt any special measures in the education system for the time being. "We can exchange opinions about that and will reach an agreement with the COVID-19 crisis response team related to perhaps ramping up the obligation of wearing masks in schools but at the moment we will remain as it is and I think that is good," said Fuchs.
As far as universities are concerned they have had a different set of epidemiological measures from the start as recommended by the Croatian Institute for Public Health (HZJZ). They can organize lectures as they think best.
Last year some subjects were taught exclusively online, "but that certainly isn't the solution."
"They are students and there is no obstacle for them to be vaccinated and universities will adopt the necessary measures. They may even apply a model of COVID certificates and testing," said Fuchs.
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