Across the world, schools and universities are prime spots for the coronavirus to spread. But if nerves hold over for the next few weeks, the young could provide the route out of the crisis.
Few can doubt that a second wave of the pandemic has struck Europe. As the number of infections soar into the tens of thousands daily, different countries are setting their own priorities.
Germany's objective is to keep the infection rate suppressed to ensure the country’s test and trace system is not overwhelmed. One of Berlin's goals is an effective detection system that is able to establish how many people have been exposed to an outbreak. This is no mean feat in a country of more than 80 million, and such a detection system is worth defending.
For other countries, the priority is to ensure community transmission remains controlled enough to keep spare capacity in health care systems. If patients were to not receive intensive care treatment as a result of too high a demand for beds, it would result in a humanitarian catastrophe.
Despite different agendas to tackle the second wave, one area where Europeans agree is the need to protect the education system from the disruptive impact of an open-ended second shutdown.
The closure of schools earlier in spring is widely acknowledged to have been deeply damaging. Not only are pupils harmed by the lack of teaching but parents' work lives are upended, causing short-term economic damage.
Schools and universities should continue in-person teaching
Some authorities are extending the upcoming autumn half term as a result of the spike in infections. Two weeks, not one, is seen as minimally harmful to the economy, as many parents were anyway planning to take annual leave. There is no suggestion that closures could be extended beyond that — something that was a threat as recently as August.
Schoolchildren in Europe are mercifully not succumbing to Covid-19 in anything close to the numbers that have been seen among the elderly.
The massive outbreak among university students after the start of term has fed into interest in Sweden-style strategies of differentiating the lockdown across the age brackets.
Students contract the virus after moving from their family homes. While at university many live in distinct cohorts like halls of residence.
In university towns there are sharp drop offs between districts that have large student accommodation blocks and neighbouring districts where the students aren’t renting.
Students obviously go to shops and travel on public transport. But interaction with the wider public remains limited. They are not living in multi-generational settings. They are quarantined more easily. Indeed, the large-scale testing regimens put in place by the universities has uncovered cases that would never have been registered.
The statistical impact is already significant but the implications are not as clear cut. The path of the pandemic and how it will play out centres on whether or not the virus will slow as it saturates the younger age bracket.
A group of scientists have issued what has become known as the Barrington Declaration. This calls for a different set of building blocks towards the lockdown. It was signed by more than 6,000 medics and scientists.
One point is that the risk from coronavirus is 1,000 times higher for the old and infirm than the youngest. The risk of hospitalisation for people aged over 85 is more than 13 times that faced by an 18-year-old who contracts the disease, according to the US Centres for Disease Control. The risk of death is an astounding 630 times higher in older people.
An alternative course of action could be for the young and those who could be ascertained to be low risk to be allowed to continue to work in normal conditions. Schools and universities should continue in-person teaching.
The older and vulnerable could be targeted with support for isolation, including home shopping deliveries and being given guidance on measures like only meeting family outside, not indoors.
The Declaration has obvious flaws. It would mean that up to 16 million people would have to isolate during the crunch period when the virus spiked, as one British MP calculated last week.
Taking a base case of half the student age population and younger contracting the virus and just five per cent of the pension-age population testing positive, the MP’s calculations were that more than 1 mn would be hospitalised and there would be an additional 90,000 deaths.
While numbers like these can seem very definite, there is no comparable process for the cost of the lockdowns on mental and physical health, as a result of withdrawn health services and social isolation.
Economics does not have the same credibility as epidemiology. Yet, both fields rely on making judgements to construct extrapolation models. The result of this mismatch in expertise is that policymakers face unbearable pressure when infections spike.
Damien McElroy is the London bureau chief of The National
BORDERLANDS
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis
Director: Eli Roth
Rating: 0/5
The Buckingham Murders
Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Rating: 4 / 5
Heather, the Totality
Matthew Weiner,
Canongate
RESULTS
Lightweight (female)
Sara El Bakkali bt Anisha Kadka
Bantamweight
Mohammed Adil Al Debi bt Moaz Abdelgawad
Welterweight
Amir Boureslan bt Mahmoud Zanouny
Featherweight
Mohammed Al Katheeri bt Abrorbek Madaminbekov
Super featherweight
Ibrahem Bilal bt Emad Arafa
Middleweight
Ahmed Abdolaziz bt Imad Essassi
Bantamweight (female)
Ilham Bourakkadi bt Milena Martinou
Welterweight
Mohamed Mardi bt Noureddine El Agouti
Middleweight
Nabil Ouach bt Ymad Atrous
Welterweight
Nouredine Samir bt Marlon Ribeiro
Super welterweight
Brad Stanton bt Mohamed El Boukhari
In Full Flight: A Story of Africa and Atonement
John Heminway, Knopff
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
Director: Scott Cooper
Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Odessa Young, Jeremy Strong
Rating: 4/5
Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The Indoor Cricket World Cup
When: September 16-23
Where: Insportz, Dubai
Indoor cricket World Cup:
Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23
UAE fixtures:
Men
Saturday, September 16 – 1.45pm, v New Zealand
Sunday, September 17 – 10.30am, v Australia; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Monday, September 18 – 2pm, v England; 7.15pm, v India
Tuesday, September 19 – 12.15pm, v Singapore; 5.30pm, v Sri Lanka
Thursday, September 21 – 2pm v Malaysia
Friday, September 22 – 3.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 3pm, grand final
Women
Saturday, September 16 – 5.15pm, v Australia
Sunday, September 17 – 2pm, v South Africa; 7.15pm, v New Zealand
Monday, September 18 – 5.30pm, v England
Tuesday, September 19 – 10.30am, v New Zealand; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Thursday, September 21 – 12.15pm, v Australia
Friday, September 22 – 1.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 1pm, grand final
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
Gifts exchanged
- King Charles - replica of President Eisenhower Sword
- Queen Camilla - Tiffany & Co vintage 18-carat gold, diamond and ruby flower brooch
- Donald Trump - hand-bound leather book with Declaration of Independence
- Melania Trump - personalised Anya Hindmarch handbag
The Settlers
Director: Louis Theroux
Starring: Daniella Weiss, Ari Abramowitz
Rating: 5/5
Visit Abu Dhabi culinary team's top Emirati restaurants in Abu Dhabi
Yadoo’s House Restaurant & Cafe
For the karak and Yoodo's house platter with includes eggs, balaleet, khamir and chebab bread.
Golden Dallah
For the cappuccino, luqaimat and aseeda.
Al Mrzab Restaurant
For the shrimp murabian and Kuwaiti options including Kuwaiti machboos with kebab and spicy sauce.
Al Derwaza
For the fish hubul, regag bread, biryani and special seafood soup.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
RESULT
Argentina 0 Croatia 3
Croatia: Rebic (53'), Modric (80'), Rakitic (90' 1)
