Missing school is worse than coronavirus for children and may cause long-term damage, Britain’s chief medical adviser Chris Whitty has said. Here in Hong Kong, we may be looking at reopening schools in two weeks’ time (“ Hong Kong schools ‘could resume classes in phases by September’ ”, August 27). However, I feel that children should stay home till the coronavirus outbreak ends. Prof Whitty said “the chances of children dying from Covid-19 are incredibly small”, but even a small chance is unthinkable. When younger children go back to school, social distancing may prove difficult. If one of them is infected or asymptomatic, the virus may spread quickly, especially when they have lunch together and take their masks off. There were still 13 new cases in the city on Friday , three of them without a known source. Of course schools will keep the campus clean and carry out regular disinfection. But is it a risk worth taking? We can still have online lessons at home. Of course they are not as good as face-to-face lessons but it is safer than going back to school during a coronavirus outbreak. Teachers can continue to assign online homework, and students can send it back via email or Google Classroom. They can use this chance to gain more life experience and get used to independent study. Children will still be learning. Nothing could be more important than protecting children’s health. Don’t send them back to school until it is completely safe to do so. Karen Lai, Sau Mau Ping Why ban gym workouts when sport is OK? Can someone in the Hong Kong government please explain the logic behind people not being allowed to exercise in a gym, where most activity is individual, compared with at least two people playing tennis or golf – both sports allowed since Friday (“ Evening dine-in services to resume, mask requirement for outdoor exercise to end ”, August 25)? I travelled on the MTR with hundreds of people without any trace of social distancing. Surely this is more dangerous than healthy individual exercising in a gym? Martin Clinch, Tung Chung Someone needs to pick up after the dogs One, not so good, side effect of “work from home” is that more owners are walking their dogs, instead of leaving it to their domestic helpers. The result is that the pavements (or sidewalks, for those from North America) of places like Shouson Hill have become virtual minefields of dog turds. Of course, these hedge fund types are far too important to clean up after their pets, but surely are wealthy enough to hire a servant to follow and clean up. David Jones, Shouson Hill