I spoke to a Year 10 Sutton Grammar School student regarding his views on the news of the new Coronavirus variant, Omicron, starting to spread around London.

 

How did you feel when you first heard of Omicron, the new coronavirus variant?

At first, I was not that surprised because I had expected the virus to mutate like it had done multiple times before. I remember being very apprehensive when I first heard of this new variant as the initial reports suggested that it was more transmissible than the other variants currently present. There have been more news stories that say the vaccine might not be fully effective against Omicron, and because I’m already single-jabbed, I didn’t know whether the vaccine I took would be effective against it or not.

 

Is there anything you feel schools should do to help contain this new variant?

My school is already making us wear a face covering in the corridors to try stop the spread of Covid. Maybe, we should have to wear a face covering inside the classroom because that’s also a place where Covid can spread from.

 

How would you react to another lockdown if there was one?

I am not a fan of lockdowns as it means I can’t see my friends face to face – doing Zoom meetings don’t have the same impact as it does when you can feel their physical presence. It also means that schoolwork will have to be done digitally, which can sometimes be confusing and glitchy.

 

Do you think your GCSEs would be impacted if there was another lockdown?

The previous 2 years were heavily affected by the pandemic, in the sense that the GCSEs were changed drastically to account for the lockdowns that have hindered our learning. If there was to be another lockdown, there would probably be more uncertainty around our GCSEs, which will be tough to work around.