Two days before the elections, the Head of Government of the City of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, announced that The use of chinstrap in kindergartens and primary schools.
In the case of schools, the Buenos Aires government established that the measure on the mask it will reach students up to third grade, so they won’t have to use chinstrap mandatory.
Among the arguments for making this decision regarding the chinstrap, the progress in the pediatric vaccination campaign against the coronavirus with the Sinopharm vaccine was highlighted, which includes boys and girls from 3 to 11 years old.
In any case, the measure goes against the sanitary recommendations that indicate that, in closed spaces, it is necessary to use mask. In addition, there is only one month until the end of classes.
For his part, Rodríguez Larreta was in charge of delivering the news: “From today in the City, the use of face masks in classrooms is no longer mandatory for all students up to the first cycle of primary in public and private schools.”
The objective is to improve the learning and socialization of students in a key stage of learning and social development.
Larreta’s justification for the chinstrap not being mandatory
The head of the Buenos Aires government indicated that “today the data show that the health situation is stable at a low level”, although he acknowledged that “there was a very slight increase in daily cases in recent weeks.”
However, he noted that “the average number of new cases per day, which is 178, is still one of the lowest in the entire pandemic.” In addition, he stated that “the occupation of intensive care beds in the public sector is also at the lowest levels in the entire pandemic: 1.5%.”
“These data are the result of the responsibility of the entire society and the advancement of the Vaccination Plan, which in the City comes in handy: in total, we have already applied more than 5 million vaccines,” he said.
75% of the population already has the complete vaccination scheme.
Regarding the chinstraps in boys and girls, he described the measure as “fundamental for the learning of the youngest” since “initial levels are key for boys to learn to read and write.”
“After analyzing it a lot with our teams and specialists, we observed that the mask is a barrier to interaction with teachers and classmates and affects literacy,” said Rodríguez Larreta.
Finally, he added that “the temperature accompanies” the “encouraging health situation,” so these were the data presented by which he governed to make the decision.
