By Anton Dedvukaj
February break has finally arrived, as the second of three week-long vacations that students take every year. However, with COVID-19 still being a threat, how will vacations impact our ability to go to school once we get back?
COVID-19 cases do seem to be on the downswing as of late, which is encouraging news. We’re in month 11 of the pandemic at this point, with many of us, including myself, eagerly anticipating the point where herd immunity is reached via the new coronavirus vaccine and we can go back to some semblance of normal life. However, the thing is, that point is not yet upon us.
Following the December-January holiday vacation, we opened school back up as we usually do under our hybrid schedule. However, within weeks, we ended up having to take a few full-remote days due to cases in our school rising. Sure, this was only about a four-day period, and we’ve been able to keep school open with the hybrid schedule since then, but it’s hard to not blame the school closure on the fact that it was the holidays and people were likely visiting family and friends.
So, how will this break affect our ability to reopen school next week?
Well, I think it could go one of two ways. Either those who did go places will end up quarantined at home for the required number of days before returning, and school can continue on relatively unchanged, or they return to school immediately, cases end up rising, and school temporarily closes again.
It really depends on any number of factors, but I think that, if we all remember to stay safe during this break, we can continue going to school in person if we choose, cases can continue to go down, and we can be one step closer to finally returning to normalcy once and for all.
