STA, 3 October 2020 - Face masks will no longer be required for nursery and kindergarten children and primary and secondary school pupils in their class, and for teachers up to the third grade of primary school, under a decision taken by the government last night.
Higher education and university teachers will also not be required to wear masks provided they hold lectures from behind a plexiglass or other type of protective screen. Gym teachers will also not be required to wear masks.
Meanwhile, teachers from the 4th grade of primary school on and secondary school teachers will be required to wear face masks when they cannot keep a distance of at least two meters from pupils during class.
The decision, taken at a cabinet correspondence session, comes after Slovenia registered a record number of daily coronavirus cases for Thursday, at 238, although Education Ministry data show the number of infections at schools has been falling.
Data as of Friday show that one month into the new school year, 0.03% of all pupils and staff at nurseries, kindergartens, and primary and secondary schools are infected, while 0.36% are self-isolating.
Moreover, the Education Ministry noted yesterday that the number of infections had been slightly decreasing in the past week compared with mid-September. Most active infections were recorded on 17 September, at 176, with 136 active infections on 1 October.
The government yesterday also passed a decree under which hand sanitisers will have to be placed at entrances and lift doors of multi-apartment buildings.
The government also relocated EUR 2.5 million for the European Commission Emergency Support Instrument for advance payments to manufacturers of promising vaccines against Covid-19.
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