Alberta has issued new guidelines for schools re-opening in September. It will be mandatory for the students studying in grade 4 to 12 to wear masks in common spaces, including school buses and hallways. But these will not be compulsory in classrooms if teachers and students are working separately at their desks.
This decision came in the midst of the province’s lead doctor said that the no of cases in the province has dropped solely due to the people following social distancing and wearing masks. She said that the government had heard of many positive reports about usage of masks.
Bylaws requiring people to wear non-medical masks in public are now in effect in Edmonton and Calgary. Enforcement officials have been on the vigil patrolling transit, recreation centers, places of worship, businesses, restaurants and malls and found that more than 80 percent people are adhering to the guideline’s.
The Government acknowledges that closing schools has a great psychological impact, and is now bracing for schools to go back to near normal come September. Though children are not the majority risk group of the virus, but they are not completely out of its range too. And that is the very bane of returning to school with precautions in place that will balance the needs of schools going children. The Government also concedes to the fact that there is no one perfect way of responding to the virus and each method will have its own fallout.