February 13, 2025
Children don't need to wear masks or follow strict social distancing when they return to school: SickKids experts
Asked about the hospital’s more controversial recommendations around masks and social distancing, Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce side-stepped the issue.
Asked about the hospital’s more controversial recommendations around masks and social distancing, Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce side-stepped the issue.

Students returning to school this fall should not have to wear masks or maintain social distancing while at play, Canada’s largest children’s hospital argues in a new report that stresses the importance of getting young people back to class.

The advice from the Hospital for Sick Children seems to veer toward a more relaxed approach than taken by some jurisdictions, especially in East Asia, as they re-opened shuttered schools.

Requiring masks could lead to more infection, not less, while separating children as they socialize outside the classroom would have negative psychological effects, says a guidance document SickKids released Wednesday. It does urge keeping desks as far apart as possible and cancelling assemblies.

Children have suffered anxiety, depression and loneliness and faced greater risk of family discord and abuse during the lockdown, hospital experts told a virtual news conference.

They said the psychological benefits of resuming in-person classes this September outweigh COVID-19’s risks, which they said can be lessened with measures like frequent handwashing and keeping sick students at home.

“It has never been 100 per cent safe to send children to school,” said Dr. Ronald Cohn, the SickKids CEO. “There’s always been a risk of contracting some infectious disease, whether it’s the flu, the Norovirus or other viruses. Children are at risk of being injured … and suffering mental and physical harm from bullying.”

“But of course we can manage these risks and put mitigating factors in place to deal with them. This is exactly the kind of approach we have to take now.”

[Interesting Read]

See Also:

(1) Ontario drivers have seen auto insurance savings but minister says more needed

(2) Ontario government extends all COVID-19 emergency orders