COVID: 100% in-person school goal at risk says GIMBE

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 22 - Italy's 100% in-person school pupil attendance goal is at risk, health group GIMBE said Wednesday.
    "The government's objective to ensure 100% in-person schooling risks being strongly undermined, as is shown by the number of classes and students already in quarantine," it said.
    "It is a very risky strategy to rely exclusively on vaccination without systematic screening and systemic interventions on air, ventilation and transport management," said GIMBE Foundation President Nino Cartabellotta.
    He pointed out, among other things, that vaccines for the under-12s were still not available.
    As for the over-12s, Cartabellotta said, there were "stark regional differences in coverage".
    Overall, GIMBE said, some 32.3% of 12-19 year-olds were not vaccinated.
    And 6.1% of school staff had not yet got the jab.
    It was "dangerous", Cartabellotta said, to abandon face masks even if all pupils in a class were vaccinated. (ANSA).