Prime minister makes another Covid-19 U-turn days before return to classrooms
- Boris Johnson drops advice against face mask use in English schools
- How England follows Scotland’s lead over Covid-19
- Global coronavirus live: latest updates
8.10am BST
A group of academics writing in the British Medical Journal have said that rules on physical distancing to curb the spread of coronavirus are based on outdated science.
Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach to social distancing, there should be “graded recommendations” for different distancing rules in different settings, which would provider greater protection for people in high risk settings and greater freedoms for people in lower risk settings.
Distribution of viral particles is affected by numerous factors, including air flow.
Evidence suggests Sars-CoV-2 may travel more than two metres through activities such as coughing and shouting.
Physical distancing should be seen as only one part of a wider public health approach to containing the Covid-19 pandemic.
It needs to be implemented alongside combined strategies of people-air-surface-space management, including hand hygiene, cleaning, occupancy and indoor space and air managements, and appropriate protective equipment, such as masks, for the setting.
8.00am BST
Katharine Birbalsingh, the famously disciplinarian headteacher of the Michaela community school in Brent, north west London, has laid into the suggestion that schoolchildren will be kept safer by face masks.
You need to take into account children’s group behaviour in a school, before you then say they are safer with masks. What about the children who turn up to school with uniforms that are not washed? They don’t necessarily wash themselves. They come into school hungry. They will be wearing re-used, dirty masks.
They will swap them; they will ping them; they will lick and spit on each others masks for a joke; they will wear them incorrectly; they will lose them. When half of your children show up to school and are not wearing masks, what do you do? Do you exclude them?
Continue reading…Prime minister makes another Covid-19 U-turn days before return to classroomsBoris Johnson drops advice against face mask use in English schoolsHow England follows Scotland’s lead over Covid-19Global coronavirus live: latest updates 8.10am BSTA group of academics writing in the British Medical Journal have said that rules on physical distancing to curb the spread of coronavirus are based on outdated science. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach to social distancing, there should be “graded recommendations” for different distancing rules in different settings, which would provider greater protection for people in high risk settings and greater freedoms for people in lower risk settings. Distribution of viral particles is affected by numerous factors, including air flow. Evidence suggests Sars-CoV-2 may travel more than two metres through activities such as coughing and shouting. Physical distancing should be seen as only one part of a wider public health approach to containing the Covid-19 pandemic. It needs to be implemented alongside combined strategies of people-air-surface-space management, including hand hygiene, cleaning, occupancy and indoor space and air managements, and appropriate protective equipment, such as masks, for the setting. 8.00am BSTKatharine Birbalsingh, the famously disciplinarian headteacher of the Michaela community school in Brent, north west London, has laid into the suggestion that schoolchildren will be kept safer by face masks. You need to take into account children’s group behaviour in a school, before you then say they are safer with masks. What about the children who turn up to school with uniforms that are not washed? They don’t necessarily wash themselves. They come into school hungry. They will be wearing re-used, dirty masks. They will swap them; they will ping them; they will lick and spit on each others masks for a joke; they will wear them incorrectly; they will lose them. When half of your children show up to school and are not wearing masks, what do you do? Do you exclude them? Continue reading…