School children will no longer be required to wear face coverings in NSW

Students in NSW will no longer be required to wear a mask at school with the rule to be ditched at the end of the month. 

Masks will be scrapped for students in just under a week while teachers and school staff will be required to mask-up until March 7. 

Students will once again be able to mingle with other year groups, Channel Nine’s political reporter Chris O’Keefe tweeted on Wednesday morning. 

Teachers and secondary students in NSW are currently required to wear a mask while face-coverings are ‘strongly recommended’ for primary-aged students. 

Students in NSW will no longer be required to wear masks at school with the rule to be ditched by the end of the month (pictured, secondary students in Melbourne)

In Victoria, students in high school and years 3 to 6 are required to wear a mask while indoors at school, while children in Prep to Year 2 are exempt from the rule.

Teachers and school staff in the southern state are also required to mask-up.  

Mask rules in schools have been criticised by some of Australia’s top epidemiologists who argue children are no more vulnerable to the virus within school settings. 

Premier Daniel Andrews defended the rule that requires only some primary-aged students to wear a mask, pointing to lower vaccination rates in that age-group. 

‘The judgement has been made and I think many teachers would support it,’ Mr Andrews said of the school rules on Tuesday. 

‘It’s a lot easier to get kids in Year 1 or 2 or 3 to get them to wear the masks properly than kids who are a bit older.’

Masks will be scrapped for students in just under a week while teachers and school staff will be required to mask-up until March 7 (pictured, school students in NSW)

Australian National University epidemiologist Professor Peter Collignon argued the spread of the virus in school settings was not a major concern to health experts. 

‘They’re more a reflection of the community, and children are at less of a risk than 20-30-year-olds, so … we’ve got quite a lot of inconsistency if we make children, young children, wear masks when they’re less of a risk both to themselves and others than adults,’ Professor Collignon told The Australian.

The professor recently revealed reduced vaccine effectiveness against the virus meant mask mandates caused more trouble than they were worth.

‘When you’ve already got 94 per cent [of over 16s double vaccinated] – the question is ‘do we need to go further?” he told Daily Mail Australia. 

He called for vaccine and mask mandates to be limited to the vulnerable aged care sector now Australia has such a high vaccination rate.

‘Those most in danger of dying from Covid are those who are older with underlying health problems,’ Professor Collignon said.

‘We still need people to wear masks around the elderly but the rest of society is a very different situation.’ 

Australian National University epidemiologist Professor Peter Collignon (pictured) has argued the spread of the virus in school settings was not a major concern to health experts

Murdoch Children’s Research Institute paediatrician Fiona Russell said the rule was unnecessary as children were at the lowest risk of hospitalisation or death.

Professor Russell said the World Health Organisation would soon release advice that would see both adults and children follow the same mask rules.

Epidemiologist Dr Catherine Bennett argued that parents could still enforce masks within their own households without a mandate.

Dr Bennett said that while vaccination rates were lower in that age-group there was no evidence to suggest infection rates were higher in primary schools. 

More to come.