Children, children! - Full face-to-face classes resume today

Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Christopher Tufton, said his ministry is adequately prepared to respond to any further eventuality that could arise from the full resumption of face-to-face classes.

The COVID-19 pandemic had forced many students out of the classrooms over the past two years, but that is set to change as full face-to-face classes resume today.

Tufton has, however, conceded that maintaining physical distancing protocols in schools could prove challenging.

"We do know that children will play [and] enjoy themselves. But other measures are in place to support our children, [which] I believe is an excellent countermeasure [when physical distancing] may not be practical," he said.

Nonetheless, Tufton said that his ministry supports the decision for the full reopening.

"There are many lessons that we have learned in terms of controlling the virus [such as] sanitising [and physical] distancing, [among other measures]," Tufton said.

The full reopening of schools come at a time when the number of persons contracting COVID-19 continues to fall. On Saturday, only 13 persons of three per cent of the persons tested for the virus returned an adverse result. The previous day, Friday, 18 persons, or four per cent of those tested returned a positive result.

Despite the low numbers, educators have been urged to ensure that infection control methods such as mask-wearing are adhered to.

Dr Kasan Troupe, acting chief education officer in the Education Ministry, said that at all levels of schools, principals are required to "arrange mask-breaks in a structured way."

"We don't want our children to just randomly take off their masks in the classroom, or in their different spaces on the school compound. It has to be structured because we still have to remember that we have a responsibility to keep ourselves safe," she said