Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna yesterday encouraged parents of students attending face-to-face classes to prepare homecooked food for them to minimize virus and bacteria transmissions.
While she can only suggest that kids bring to school their own food, Lacuna directed administrators of the city’s 107 public elementary and high schools to ensure that students do not mingle while eating.
“When it’s time to eat, to each his or her own, strictly. So they’ll have to eat in their respective areas,” Lacuna said in Filipino, adding homecooked food for students should also be nutritious and clean.
The mayor added that for parents to regularly source the food of their kids from fast-food chains and restaurants would be expensive for them in the long run.
A doctor, Lacuna said that the Covid-19 virus is still around and so eating together for students, while enjoyable, is being discouraged as it is against the minimum social distancing protocol.
She also advised parents and guardians to have qualified school-age kids vaccinated against Covid-19 despite virus transmission numbers going down in the past few weeks in Metro Manila.
While the vaccines cannot provide total immunity against Covid, the mayor said they can make exposure to the virus more survivable for patients.
Health experts have noted that while transmission numbers are declining, the number of Covid-positive people getting severe symptoms and needing critical medical care is somehow spiking.
“An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure,” she reminded parents.