Hong Kong parents, child development expert call for school meal Covid-19 restrictions to fall into line with restaurants
- Parents and child development expert say children should be allowed to mingle at break times in line with restaurant Covid-19 rules relaxation
- Child behaviour expert warns children may lose out on social skills if not allowed to mix with others
Social-distancing rules for mealtimes in Hong Kong schools should be eased to allow pupils to mingle with each other, parents and a child development specialist have said as they highlighted inconsistencies in Covid-19 prevention policies.
They were speaking on Tuesday after the government earlier announced that a maximum of 12 customers would be allowed at each table in restaurants, up from eight, from Thursday.
Clubs and pubs would also benefit from the relaxation as they were allowed to have six people to a table instead of four.
But some children still have to spend their meal times behind partitions and are not allowed to talk when their masks are removed under tough guidelines drawn up by the Education Bureau.
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The bureau told the Post that schools were still required to take precautionary measures and that officials would continue to monitor the pandemic situation and update the rules if appropriate.