Oslo Municipality wants a national advisory for face masks on buses and trams. On Friday, an advisory on the use of face masks in public transportation will be made, the Minister of Health warns.
-”Everyone must be prepared for the advisory to come on Friday.”, said Høie in Dagsnytt 18 on NRK on Tuesday evening.
The background for the advisory is the increase in infections, states the Minister of Health.
On Tuesday, City Councilor, Raymond Johansen (AP), stated that they will not introduce the advisory on the use of face masks in public transportation in Oslo without there being a notional council first.
The emergency center in West Oslo agreed this week that the authorities should make face masks mandatory in public places.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
WHY all this foot dragging?
They should simply announce that as of Friday facemasks on public transportation throughout Norway and out in public generally in Olso will be mandatory.
And advise people to buy the “disposable” masks – which can be reused after 3 or so days, according to the articles – NOW.
It is time to be DECISIVE.
Masks *should* be worn by *everyone* in schools as well.
There is an article by a British mother promoting children including her own going back to school. But here is an EXCELLENT, authoritative comment beneath it deflating it and emphasizing the need for facemasks:
To be frank Miss Didlum writes:
Although I’m sure everyone thinks it would be better for our children to return to school, hardly anybody trusts the politicians to ensure it is safe for them, their teaching staff, and families though.
Their motive to resume “business as usual” and force parents back to the workplace is obvious to everyone, even though they are trying to convince everyone it’s because they care about children’s education, health and welfare.
As a result of them not even wanting to promote just a basic precaution of wearing face coverings when a two-metre social distance is not possible in schools, you are perfectly justified to be concerned.
“The British Medical Association, which represents doctors in the UK, has stated that wherever two-metre social distancing cannot be complied with – including in schools – masks should be worn as a way of reducing transmission.
Dr David Strain of the BMA said: “The idea of them wearing masks to stop spread around the school – enabling them to potentially take it home to older relatives and also risking teachers – is a sensible precaution.”
https://labourlist.org/2020/07/labour-disagrees-with-unions-on-face-masks-in-schools/
“Two new studies, though from different parts of the world, have arrived at the same conclusion: that young children not only transmit SARS-CoV-2 efficiently, but may be major drivers of the pandemic as well. “
“The researchers found that although young children had a somewhat lower risk of infection than adults and were less likely to become ill, children age 14 and younger transmit the virus more efficiently to other children and adults than adults themselves. Their risk of transmitting Covid-19 was 22.4 percent—more than twice that of adults aged 30 to 49, whose rate of contagiousness was about 11 percent. “Although childhood contacts were less likely to become cases,” they wrote, “children were more likely to infect household members.”
The Trento study also found that its youngest participants were the most efficient transmitters of the disease, citing respiratory syncytial virus as an example of another infectious disease for which this has been the case. The younger the child, they noted, the higher the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 in their nasal passages—an observation consistent with the Chicago study.
Both studies spell serious implications for countries contemplating whether or not to reopen schools in the face of lingering and out-of-control outbreaks, the United States included. Even if children are required to keep their hands to themselves, refrain from sharing toys and supplies, and wear masks at all times, we can’t realistically expect them to follow such rules without fail. So long as misbehavior is a possibility, so too is the rampant spread of infection.
If children from ages 5 to 17 are as or possibly even more contagious than adults, then opening schools in areas where daily rates of infection remain moderate to high is extremely risky and unwise. The measures we deploy to contain the spread of Covid-19 in our schools and our communities must take the entire population into account—children age 18 and below included.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2020/07/31/new-evidence-suggests-young-children-spread-covid-19-more-efficiently-than-adults/#53db59fc19fd
Their plans to continue with overcrowded classrooms and not even take seriously the scientific findings, will no doubt be a disaster for us all.
There aren’t even contingency measures in place to promote online lessons and provide laptops if there are spikes in the infection rate.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/reopening-schools-uk-coronavirus-children-parents-a9664556.html
My own comment commending the person’s asks how children are going to feel when – without facemasking and other serious prevention – they bring *this* lethal virus back home to kill grandparents and even some parents … and its effect on children themselves can be grim as is being discovered.
This is NO time for “Norwegian footdragging” regarding facemasks.