“We have alleviated all measures in schools so that students and teachers have a teaching activity as close as possible to normality in schools at this moment”, with the mask being the “only measure that remains”, said Graça Freitas, at a conference of press at the Directorate-General for Health in Lisbon.

Graça Freitas explained that the use of a mask is segmented according to the risk and the ability of children to bear its use, noting that under the age of five it is not recommended and that between 6 and 9 years old it is optional.

“It is only the older ones, from the age of 10, who are recommended to wear a mask”, she underlined.

The director-general of Health noted that children and young people have great immune protection, either because they had the disease (about 51% between 6 and 17 years old) or because they are vaccinated, and there are still situations in which they had a dose or two doses of the vaccine and had the disease.

However, she said, “there is still a large number of susceptible people in schools” and, despite the fact that Covid-19 in children is “usually mild, the fact is that they are vectors of transmission of the disease.