MONTREAL—Quebec high school students are back in the classroom today after a month-long layoff imposed by the government to reduce the spread of COVID-19.
All students are required to wear procedural masks inside high school buildings and the government is providing each student two masks per day.
Premier Francois Legault closed primary and high schools on Dec. 17 and extended the winter break; primary school students returned to in-person learning on Jan. 11.
Quebec is reopening schools despite imposing a provincewide curfew between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. until at least Feb. 8. and despite ordering most businesses deemed non-essential closed.
Legault has said schools aren’t primary drivers of COVID-19 transmission and that the benefits to children of keeping schools open outweigh the risks of contagion.
A recent study by a group of researchers, including from the University of Montreal, indicated schools were, in fact, a significant vector of transmission in the community.
