Social bubbles in schools and on school transport are important, Charmaine Gauci advises

Social distancing through the use of social bubbles will have to be applied in schools and on school transport to minimise the risk of coronavirus spread, Charmaine Gauci has advised.

The Public Health Superintendent was answering questions about guidelines that are currently being drawn up by the health and education authorities to enable schools to reopen safely in September.

No decisions have been taken yet and on Monday the health and education ministers will be consulting with the World Health Organisation on the matter. There are ongoing talks between the different stakeholders, including the Malta Union of Teachers on the protocols to be introduced.

But in her weekly media briefing on Friday afternoon, Gauci lifted the lid on some of the guidelines being considered by the health authorities, when asked by journalists on the protocols that will be in place when schools reopen.

She spoke on the importance of social bubbles, where children would remain with the same group to minimise infection spread inside schools. But she also advised that social bubbles should also be applied on school transport.

It remains unclear how the social bubbles concept will be applied on school mini vans and privates, where children from different classrooms mix together.

Face masks and schools

Gauci explained that in schools the basic principles of social distancing (social bubbles) and good hand and personal hygiene applied. She also spoke on recommendations made by the World Health Organisation (WHO) which stated that children under three do not have to wear masks.

However, the WHO recommended that children from the ages of three to 11 did not need to wear masks in classrooms, however, should instead wear them in the school's public areas such as corridors, bathrooms and when talking to people outside of their social bubble.

The WHO has also recommended that children over 11 should wear masks at all times.

Gauci said it was important for schools to reopen. "We need schools and we need children to get an education," she said, adding that everyone had to work together to keep the infection rate down.

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