Egyptian mothers fight Corona ... Victoria College rumor raises panic in schools

Shaima Abdullah

With China announcing the arrival of a virus carrier from Egypt, that it did not pass a quarantine at the airport, and that it spent nearly ten days on a tourist holiday in Cairo, panic increased through groups of mothers on social media.

“A case of injury at the Victoria College School in Alexandria and being obscured.” “Beware going to schools.” “The lives of our children are not a game in the hands of the government.” Shouting, intimidation, and warning, and no one knows the source of the rumors and no one succeeded in verifying the truth or misleading in the absence of Official data from the Ministry of Education, and neither the Victoria College administration's oldest foreign school in Egypt deny the rumor that has circulated among groups of mothers on social media, in a recording whose main source is not known.

But hours after the first rumor came into effect, a second rumor circulated with the arrest of the woman with the sound warning, and her accusation of promoting rumors threatening national security, without any official confirmation denying the first rumor or confirming the second rumor.

A case of panic afflicted the mothers of schoolchildren in Egypt, after discovering the first infection with the "Corona" virus, which coincided with the beginning of the second week of the second semester, the first week passed amid attempts by the Egyptian Minister of Health to reassure citizens that the country is free of the deadly virus, and the assurances of the Minister of Education not to Postponing the date of returning to schools.

Corona, the horrific virus, was not a few days ago, but suddenly it turned into a deadly obsession in maternal groups via social media, WhatsApp and Facebook.

War of rumors
Rehab Abdel-Azim, the mother of the child Anas in the first grade, says, "The tone of the warning from Corona escalated suddenly after the discovery of the first case. After that it was only a warning of children getting a cold, going to school, putting masks, and using antiseptics, it became more terrifying." , After discovering the situation near one of the famous malls in Cairo, the mothers in school groups became more terrified.

"The classroom of my son at school witnessed a high rate of absence, and mothers every day begin a war of nerves with a number of rumors that are being promoted, about the spread of Corona among schoolchildren, but the government is keeping a secret on the news because the issue is national security, which raises a state of confusion Mothers have a common denial or endorsement as precautions. "

Prevention measures
In one of the government schools, the mothers in the second semester took care of the school’s cleanliness and its baths in particular, so that they raised funds to bring in supervisors for cleaning, at their personal expense, because the Ministry’s budget allows only one female supervisor to be assigned to the whole school, which means that it is impossible for her to perform her job duties on Totally.

But despite the situation of exaggerated hygiene, this did not prevent many mothers from the absence of their children from school and to content themselves with private lessons as a safe alternative, says Basma Hawash about the absence of her children in the first preparatory and fifth primary levels. "There is an unspoken decision to remove absences from my children's school, and I am not ready That one of my children return from school with a cold or a high temperature, and the masks do not help, as the children considered it a game and it expired an hour after use. "

Special budget
Gags also became a special item in the families budget, whose children continued to go to school. After the price of the medical muzzle ranged between eight and ten pounds, the price after the spread of "Corona" reached sixty pounds, and most of them relied on gags for the dust that rose from one pound to Four pounds, which placed an additional burden on families.

"The cost of the school day for one of my four children is over 50 pounds, between sandwiches, a special expense, and a muzzle, but we have no trick but muzzle and supplication," said Manal Abu Sunna, mother of the child Ahmed in the fifth grade of primary school.