Covid-19 in Malaysia has been achieving high numbers for weeks now, and at the same time a rise in positive cases among children. 

Based on reports, the education ministry as well as students should prepare themselves, for if the the uptrend continues, schools would need to go back to online learning once again. 

"The ministry and schools, in the meantime, should formulate how they want to go about doing this.

"They should assess whether it should be fully virtual or hybrid with very limited physical capacity for rural areas or schools where children do not have the means to purchase gadgets or install WiFis.

"At this point, schools should also be empowered to make their own decisions on this without intervention from the authorities," said Epidemiologist Dr Malina Osman. 

She also noted that this move (if done), should be for students who are not sitting for their examinations. Examination candidates should be allowed to sit for their papers when the time comes. 

Despite difficulty, this would very much be needed because children as well as adolescents happen to be the main groups of disease transmitters at present time. 

Their exposure to each other in schools has caused spreading to one another, as well as vulnerable groups like the elderly, pregnant women and the immunocompromised, she noted. 

In this year alone, there has been 46,194 Covid cases involving children, with 16,810 infections recorded among those under the age of 6.

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