Boris Johnson U-turns on face mask rules in schools
Boris Johnson has made face masks mandatory in some situations in English schools in what has become another U-turn for the government.
The Prime Minister made a formal announcement today, after pressure from teachers, unions and medical experts.
Face masks will be mandatory in communal areas and hallways in schools that are in regions in local lockdown. They will not be required in classrooms.
England’s head teachers will be able to decide for themselves if they want to make face masks mandatory in areas that are not under lockdown.
Cabinet secretaries repeatedly said earlier this week that face coverings would not be mandatory in any schools, before the government yesterday changed its mind.
The World Health Organization (WHO) also recently changed its advice to say under-12s should be wearing face masks in the same situations as adults.
“What we’re saying is if you’re in a school where there is a ‘hot spot’ then it probably does make sense in confined areas outside the classroom to use a face coverings in the corridor and elsewhere,” Johnson said.
“As they discovered in Scotland, where they’ve had the kids in for at least a couple of weeks now, what they found was that it was raining outside, people were coming in and they were congregating in the corridors and the move to face coverings they thought was sensible.
“What we are doing, following what the WHO have said, is we are saying, if you are in a hot spot area where there is a higher risk of transmission then face coverings in those types of areas outside the classroom.
“But not in the classrooms, because that is clearly nonsensical – you can’t teach with face coverings, you can’t expect people to learn with face coverings.”