Face Masks: The New Fingers on Lips To Quieten Students
While at school, face masks are required in all indoor and outdoor settings for all staff, and all students in Year 7 and above. Masks are strongly recommended for primary students - NSW Education Department
Roadmap To Return To Face-to-Face Learning
Full Return (Level 3)
Areas across NSW that are removed from stay-at-home rules will return to school under Level 3 settings. This is a full return for all cohorts to schools, with reduced mingling and on-site activities.
Restrictions
Level 3: COVID-safe; further restrictions on activities and non-essential visitors.
- While at school, face masks are required in all indoor and outdoor settings for all staff, and all students in Year 7 and above.
Staged Return (Level 3 plus)
When stay-at-home rules are still in place but other community vaccination and transmission conditions are met, students will return to school in a staged way. This is a staggered return for prioritised cohorts, with no mingling or on-site activities.
Students will return to face-to-face learning with NSW Health-approved COVID-safe settings on school sites in the following order:
- from 18 October – Department Preschools, Kindergarten and Year 1
- from 25 October – All remaining year groups
Restrictions
Level 3 plus: Staggered return of students to face-to-face learning for areas under a stay-at-home rule.
- Priority to return to face-to-face learning will be for students in Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 12 as well as those completing their HSC.
- While at school, face masks are required in all indoor and outdoor settings for all staff, and all students in Year 7 and above. Masks are strongly recommended for primary students.
Is There A Need For Students To Wear Masks?
Source: Clip from 08 September 2021 NSW Covid-19 Daily Update Conference
Professor Kristine Macartney in speaking about the spread of Covid-19 in educational facilities says that the spread of the virus amongst children has been relatively low. She then went on to say that majority of children who've been infected with the virus have had no symptoms or had only mild symptoms. Now that the professor established that there is a low risk of the virus spreading amongst children, one can't help but ask: "Then what are face masks protecting students from?"
Science: Masks Don't Prevent Virus Transmission
The following is the abstract of Surgical Mask filter and Fit Performance, a science research paper on the filter performance of surgical masks.
Background: Surgical masks have been used since the early 1900s to minimize infection of surgical wounds from wearer-generated bacteria. There is ongoing debate, however, whether surgical masks can meet the expectations of respiratory protection devices. The goal of this study was to evaluate the filter performance and facial fit of a sample of surgical masks.
Methods: Filter penetration was measured for at least 3 replicates of 9 surgical masks using monodisperse latex sphere aerosols (0.895, 2.0, and 3.1 microm) at 6 L/min and 0.075-microm sodium chloride particles at 84 L/min. Facial fit was measured on 20 subjects for the 5 masks with lowest particle penetration, using both qualitative and quantitative fit tests.
Results: Masks typically used in dental settings collected particles with significantly lower efficiency than those typically used in hospital settings. All subjects failed the unassisted qualitative fit test on the first exercise (normal breathing). Eighteen subjects failed the assisted qualitative fit tests; 60% failed on the first exercise. Quantitative fit factors ranged from 2.5 to 9.6.
Conclusion: None of these surgical masks exhibited adequate filter performance and facial fit characteristics to be considered respiratory protection devices.
TGA Does Not Inspect Whether Masks Block Virus Transmission
The Therapeutic Goods Administration Division of the Australian Health Department has confirmed that surgical face masks do not provide complete protection from germs and other small particle contaminants including airborne infectious aerosols. Quality assurance control by the Division does not include inspections into whether face masks reduce or prevent the transmission of disease or micro-organisms (such as bacteria or viruses) between people.
Students To Wear Masks On a Permanent Basis
Even if schools are lowered to a Level 2 or Level 1 risk, students are still recommended to wear face masks or at minimum support face mask wearing for students and staff:
Level 2: COVID-safe; restrictions on activities and non-essential visitors
- While in indoor settings in schools, masks or face coverings are recommended for all staff and all students K-12.
- No NSW public schools are currently operating at this level.
Level 1: School operating in a COVID-safe way
- Staff and students are supported to wear a mask or face covering should they choose to do so.
- No NSW public schools are currently operating at this level.
Source: Clip is from the 16 August 2021 NSW Covid-19 Daily Update Conference
Article by Adham Tebbie
Click or Tap on Opinions for more articles by Adham.
News Feed
