Minister: shorten distance and school can resume

The Prime Minister announced the second phase of the lockdown lift on Thursday.

This phase included allowing more pupils back to school in the coming weeks, with fourth graders starting on today, fifth graders on next Monday and ninth graders on 18 May. Other year groups will continue with online schooling until further notice.

Despite this further lifting of restrictive measures, the two-metre social distancing recommendations still apply.

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But education minister Jenis av Rana, who worked as a GP for many years prior to becoming a minister, wants to get all year groups back to school as soon as possible.

“The two-metre distancing requirement made sense in the first weeks after the outbreak, but the virus no longer exists in our society,” he says. “We should continue our hygiene precautions, but the distancing is far less important now.”

The minister believes that having a two-metre distancing requirement across the board will entail a comprehensive restructuring of society.

“With this requirement, all our buildings, including our schools, will be too small to accommodate our pupils. This degree of social distancing doesn’t make sense anymore. We need to change our strategy so that we can get our society back to normal.”

Translated by prosa.fo