Greece will be making the use of face masks for coronavirus protection optional at schools, the government announced on Tuesday, ahead of the new academic year starting on September 12.
A relevant proposal by the health experts committee at the Health Ministry was approved by the government, and announced jointly by the Health and Education & Religion Ministries.
Summarized, the directives for schools are as follows:
- The use of protective masks is optional.
- Students with symptoms of coronavirus infection will stay home and do self-tests.
- Students with confirmed infections will need to be isolated for at least 5 days. If there is no fever following this, or need for antifever medication, they can come out of isolation and return to school wearing a high-protection mask (Ν95, ΚΝ95, FFP2, or doubled-up simple surgical masks) for another 5 days.
- Hand washing must be observed, and classrooms aired properly.
The measures will be reexamined if epidemiological factors change, the ministries said, adding that a soon-to-be-published ministerial decision will give more details.