Face coverings will continue to be required in Scottish secondary schools for another week at least, Nicola Sturgeon has said.
The First Minister said secondary pupils and teachers will need to keep using masks in school premises as she announced a relaxation of other covid measures which, she said, effectively returns schools and nurseries to the situation before the emergence of Omicron.
In her covid update, Sturgeon said the Government’s advisory group on education had decided the time is not right to drop the face masks requirement.
She said: “It concluded that although we may be close to the time when face coverings no longer need to be worn in the class room assuming current trends continue, we have not yet reached that stage.“
The FM added: “No-one wants young people to have to wear face coverings in the class room for a moment longer than necessary. But given the current uncertainty about infection trends in the immediate future, and the relatively high levels of covid in the younger age groups, continued caution is prudent at this stage.”
The advisory group will consider the issue again next week. In England the requirement for face coverings in classrooms was dropped on 20th January .
The biggest increase in covid cases in the past week has been in the under-15s, with a seven per cent rise in numbers.
But Sturgeon added: “That is significantly lower than the 41 per cent rise in that age group recorded in the previous week. This may well indicate that the impact of the return to school after the Christmas break is beginning to tail off.”
The government has been under pressure from Labour to increase ventilation in classroom settings and to prioritise testing for teaching staff amid rising covid cases in schools.
Sturgeon also confirmed revised guidance easing requirements for bubbles or groupings within schools and less restrictive advice on visitors to school and school trips.
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