Education: from Piedmont to Puglia, ban on gatherings outside schools and face masks compulsory

There is confusion about the use of face masks in classrooms, but also and especially outside schools. Bans on gatherings outside the institutes are starting to come. What you see outside schools is: parents chatting, students playing in the courtyard as if nothing had happened, groups of people lingering after the exit of children from school.

A new ordinance of the Piedmont Region, by President Alberto Cirio, will make the use of face masks compulsory, even outdoors in the areas close to schools, all throughout Piedmont. After Foggia, now also in Monopoli (Puglia) the Mayor Angelo Annese has imposed the obligation to wear a face mask at the entry and the exit of students from schools and up to 150 meters away from institutes. Annese said: “After the first days of school, monitoring the various situations, following a debate with head teachers and accepting the requests of some parents, I signed the ordinance of obligation to use face masks correctly in the 150 meters adjacent to schools of all types and levels during the entry and exit of students”. Starting next Monday, masks will also have to be worn in some of the streets and squares of Castelnovo Monti (in the province of Reggio Emilia) during the entrance and exit of children from schools. This is provided for by a new ordinance signed by the mayor Enrico Bini. The Municipality has received reports of gatherings out of schools and at public transport stops. Hence the Mayor’s measure that provides for penalties from 400 up to one thousand euros.

Today’s update, 5 October, is about the new Giuseppe Conte’s DPCM: compulsory masks outdoors, restaurants and bars closed at 11 pm, in order to “preserve health”.