The province of Antwerp extended its face mask obligation to school environments, instead of following Belgium's National Security Council's decision to relax the measure from October.
The province will keep the national rules as set out in the Ministerial Decree of 30 June, and will not relax them as the most recent Council advised, provincial governor Cathy Berx decided.
On the contrary, an extra rule was added to the Antwerp police regulation. From now on, wearing a face mask will also mandatory in school environments during "the usual drop-off and pick-up times."
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The decision was made partly at the request of the mayors in the province, she told Gazet van Antwerpen.
The rule applies within a radius of two hundred metres of all school entrances and exits, for all nursery, primary and secondary schools, as well as for universities and adult education.
"Unfortunately, the spread of the coronavirus is still very strong in the province of Antwerp," Berx said. "For example, the incidence of new cases per 100,000 inhabitants is 198.6 in a fortnight, and the test positivity ratio is 5.3%."
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
