Quebec schools will abolish masks and distance on one condition
Schoolchildren and students can return to normal classes as early as September.
Next school year in Quebec may start without masks and social distance, if by that time 75% of teenagers aged 12 to 17 are fully vaccinated in the province. This was announced by the Minister of Education, Jean-Francois Roberge. The mass vaccination of schoolchildren in Quebec begins on June 7.
In colleges and universities, students will also be able to forget about the distance if 75% of people between 16 and 29 years old are fully vaccinated. The issue of masks, however, has not yet been resolved.
Thus, with sufficient vaccination, Quebec will return 100% to "normal" education as it was before the pandemic. The only sanitary measures that will remain in place will be hand washing and surface disinfection. However, individual classes and groups may switch to distance learning if there is an outbreak.
The plan to start the next school year will be reviewed again in August, based on new data on the epidemiological situation in Quebec. Currently, 45% of children aged 12 to 17 have already had their first vaccination or have signed up to be vaccinated.
Quebec is the first province in Canada to announce the removal of restrictions in schools next school year. According to a plan developed by the provincial government, many quarantine measures will cease to be in effect as early as June. By the 25th, mandatory mask-wearing and distance compliance for vaccinated Quebecers is scheduled to be revisited.
