Madrid to make masks mandatory in schools for children
Face masks will be obligatory for children aged 6 and older while at schools in Spain's central capital.
Madrid's regional premier, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, announced the new measure at a press conference Tuesday, while presenting a strategy for the safe return to schools amid the coronavirus pandemic. She said class sizes will also be reduced and thousands more teachers will be hired on a temporary basis.
Diaz Ayuso noted that, if Madrid's epidemiological situation improves, face masks will only be mandatory for students aged 11 and up. The region is planning for the staggered reopening of schools in September.
With over 405,000 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 so far, Spain has the highest case count of any country in Europe. The day-to-day increase of new cases has been steadily climbing since Spain emerged from a more than three-month national lockdown in late June.
Last week, Spain's head of health emergencies, Dr. Fernando Simon, warned that "things are not going well" regarding a recent spike of infections.
"Each day, we are seeing more and more transmission," Simon said.