Photo/Illutration A teacher disinfects a toy at a certified nursery school in Chiba Prefecture. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Many working parents are being forced to look after their young children at home amid a spike in temporary closures of nursery schools due to the alarming rise in COVID-19 cases across the country. 

In Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, a 38-year-old company employee had no choice but to stay home after the certified nursey school she sends her three children, aged between 2 and 6, reported an infection.

The school closed for four days in mid-January, but her son had to remain home for about two weeks because he came into close contact with others who tested positive.

Although her three children were all confirmed not infected with the virus through PCR tests, the woman cared for them while she tried to work.

She checked her email constantly and only “listened to” online meetings as she had to keep an eye on her children scurrying around the house.

“It was so hectic that I was mentally driven into a corner,” she said.

The woman, who is pregnant with her fourth child, said she decided to move into a larger home to ensure her family members maintain social distance as the nursery school could close again amid the spread of COVID-19 driven by the Omicron variant.

Nursery schools are also struggling to balance taking anti-virus measures and providing child care.

“If this continues, we could all end up collapsing,” said a male director of a certified nursery school in Chiba Prefecture, lamenting the strain on child care services.

The 54-year-old director said three teachers at his nursery school have been unable to report to work since they were identified as coming into close contact with infected individuals. The school also learned on Jan. 21 that one child under its care tested positive for the virus.

The director said he was puzzled at a local public health center’s instructions that the school should not only contact those who have come into close contact with the child but also find an institution that can conduct COVID-19 testing on them.

All the while, the school has been flooded with phone calls from parents asking if it would remain open.

The school later suspended some of its services, but the director expressed anger over the response by the local public health center.

“The center had been functioning better until last summer,” he said. “I heard that public health centers are being overwhelmed, but the same goes for us, too.”

The Higashinoda Chidori nursery school, a "kodomo-en" center of education and child care, in Osaka’s Miyakojima Ward repeatedly closed and reopened after it started receiving reports of infections among the children’s families last week.

The school has 200 children enrolled. Thirty percent of their parents are essential workers, including health and nursing care personnel.

The Osaka city government is asking parents to refrain from sending their children to nursery schools in light of the strain on their services. However, Eriko Egawa, director of the Higashinoda Chidori nursery school, said she chose not to close her school for an extended period to avoid putting parents at a loss for what to do with their children.

Nearly half of the 40 staff members at the school are raising their own children. Such staff frequently receive phone calls from their children’s elementary or nursery schools asking them to pick up their children following reports of infections there.

“We can’t secure enough personnel to keep operating if our staff test positive,” said Egawa. “I’m concerned about the uncertainty.”

(This article was written by Naoko Kobayashi and Daisuke Yajima.)

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