Mandatory mask wearing for children in school could be one way to curb the spread of Covid-19.
That’s the position of the Independent Scientific Advocacy Group who are set to hold a public discussion today about the impending return of school children and how it might happen safely.
Their paper titled “Back to School 2021 – What we need to do to protect our children” will launch at midday.
“Back to School 2021 – What we need to do to protect our children.”
An @ISAGCOVID19 public meeting & press conference lead by @aoifemcl, with guest speaker @Orla_Hegarty, @GabrielScally, @astaines & ISAG panel.
– 12pm, Wed, Aug 18th
Join:https://t.co/JyiwqzzkcU pic.twitter.com/ZB3Bt2F3UH
— Independent Scientific Advocacy Group (ISAG) (@ISAGCOVID19) August 17, 2021
The ISAG’s Dr Tomas Ryan says that modeling from NPHET predicts approx 4,000 cases a day in early September, likely Delta variant, which would put pressure on the wider community and hospitals in particular, and could result in a fourth lockdown.
Dr Ryan told KCLR mandatory mask wearing in schools is not ideal but could be a way to avoid such a hike in the case numbers:
“The schools were protected by what we were doing in the whole country. But as the country is opening up, as cases are going very high and as the Delta variant is here it would make a significant difference if all the children were masked while they were in school. That’s not what we want to be doing but the alternative is suffering greater numbers of infection and potentially seeing a situation where we have to close the schools and move to home-schooling”.
