by InTrieste
Friuli Venezia Giulia saw thousands of students get back to schools on Monday, 11 September, after the long summer holidays. The return to school coincides with a recent rise in covid cases in Italy, however the Italian health ministry’s director of covid prevention Francesco Vaia said the situation is not a cause for alarm.
Vaia told Corriere della Sera on Saturday that the spike had been expected after the summer but noted that the numbers “are very different from previous years.”
Walter Ricciardi, the former president of the Higher Health Institute (ISS), claimed on Monday that the return to school brings with it a risk of increased covid infections in the classroom.
In an interview with La Stampa newspaper, Ricciardi claimed that the health ministry’s guidelines for schools are “insufficient” and “based on political rather than scientific criteria”.
Mario Rusconi, president of the Italian principals’ association, told state broadcaster RAI News that many schools will hand out masks and gel “to those who ask”, making use of supplies distributed during the “critical phase” of the pandemic.
Massimo Andreoni, scientific director of the Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases (Simit), told news agency Adnkronos that “school has always been a hotbed of viruses” and that he didn’t think there was “any harm” in offering masks to students.
The obligation for students to wear masks in the classroom ended on 1 September 2022 with the beginning of the 2022-23 academic year.
