25 Mar 2020
This is one of the key challenges with managing teenagers – in fact, a colleague described attempts to distance young people as akin to “keeping puppies apart”! We have certainly found this to be challenging at school and thank those families who have been able to transition into remote learning for assisting us to better enforce this now. Some of the non-compliance with social distancing reflects the lack of understanding of the rapid transmission and serious nature of this virus.
I have included the following information from the Department of Health to stimulate discussion with your children, as you now have more daily responsibility for ensuring their behaviour contributes to a timely, positive outcome.
Transmission of COVID-19 is through contact with respiratory droplets containing the virus, produced when an infectious individual coughs or sneezes. As a consequence, individual behaviour is key to containing spread of the virus, and involves taking personal responsibility for measures, such as regular hygiene practices, early self-isolation and personal social distancing.
Social distancing is one of the key measures currently being utilised to contribute to Australia’s ability to severely limit transmission of COVID-19. This reduces the burden of disease in the community, and importantly, will ensure health care capacity is not overwhelmed at any given time. The overarching goal of the Australian Government’s recommendations is to slow the spread of the virus and flatten the epidemic curve.
We all have both a community and individual responsibility to maintain social distancing and minimise interactions in order to protect the people we love. The aim is a population response, to reduce transmission to protect vulnerable populations.