Parents of students in the private network in Rio are divided on the use of masks

Parents of students in the private school system in the city of Rio de Janeiro are divided on the use of a mask. The item was no longer mandatory this Monday (7), when Mayor Eduardo Paes (PSD) signed a decree withdrawing the mandatory protection against Covid in closed environments.

With this, the city became the first capital in Brazil to completely abolish the use of masks.

According to Daniel Becker, public health specialist and member of Rio’s scientific committee, it is up to the education department and private schools to decide whether or not to use masks.

The State Department of Health says that state schools in the city of Rio must follow the new rules. The Municipal Health Department says that the use of masks is no longer mandatory in teaching units, but that it encourages the use of protection by immunosuppressed people, with high-risk comorbidities or unvaccinated people.

consulted by sheet, seven private schools said that the use of the item will be optional. These are Elite, PH, Franco-Brazilian, Santo Inácio, CEL (Intercultural School) and Mopi schools. Escola Parque oriented the use of a mask for another two-week period.

At Colégio Santo Agostinho, the use of the item is no longer mandatory, but some parents still prefer that their children use the protection.

This is the case of dentist Ivi Costa, 43, who spoke to the report after dropping off her seven-year-old daughter at school, located in Barra da Tijuca, west of Rio.

“She is wearing a mask and will continue to wear a mask. She only took the first dose. She will take the second now on Friday and will remain with the mask for at least two more weeks”, says Costa.

After the two weeks, she says she will assess the epidemiological scenario to decide whether or not the young woman continues with the mask.

For the dentist, the City Hall decree was hasty. “I think I should have waited at least another 14 days after Carnival to see what happens.”

Although the street Carnival was suspended, the clandestine blocks spread throughout the city, gathering hundreds of revelers.

Fernanda de Paula, 37, also prefers to wait for her six-year-old daughter to retire. “I won’t take the mask off now, but I don’t know what it’s going to be like from now on, with her seeing her friends without a mask. But I’ll try to keep it. I prefer to be cautious for the moment.”

However, unlike Costa, the physical therapist says that the city hall decree came at a good time. “The measure came at the right time. I think there was an evolution, vaccines, science came. Everything is moving towards normality. We just need to get used to this new normal, to what it was before.”

Businesswoman Rahyra Soares, 32, allowed her eight-year-old son to go to school without a mask. “Today he came in without a mask. I prefer it, because he is already vaccinated and I think it’s no longer a problem for him to come without a mask. I don’t see a problem,” she says, adding that she released the item for her son’s well-being.

“Because he wears glasses, the mask makes his glasses fog up and he can’t see properly. It’s too hot too, so he complains of shortness of breath.”

For her, the municipal decree could have come even earlier. “I thought it took a while. There was Carnival, New Year’s Eve parties and everyone without a mask.”

Lawyer Mariana Rolins, 41, makes a similar assessment. “People at Carnival were all in blocks and it’s a sin with children in this ’50°C heat’ to ask them to wear a mask. Children have already been heavily penalized in the pandemic. the right to play freely, to breathe fresh air”, says she, who is the mother of a six-year-old girl.

If in schools parents are divided on the use of the mask, in the streets the situation is no different. In neighborhoods like Leblon and Ipanema, in the south zone, part of the pedestrians were already walking without the item this Tuesday (8), while others kept it on their face.

The journeyman Rodolfo Matos, 42, who has been working in Leblon for a little over a year, notices this division regarding the use of protection among those who circulate in the region. “It’s half and half. A lot of people without a mask, but a lot of people with a mask”, summarizes him, who is part of the first group, having chosen to abolish the item from his routine.

“We started to go to a new normal, now without a mask. I’m on my third dose and I already feel safe to go around without a mask.”

Electrician Janderson da Silva, 38, has a different opinion. For him, the use of the mask is still fundamental. “My son has breathing problems. So, to take care of myself and my family’s health, I preferred to continue wearing the mask,” he says.

“If it’s to be wrong, let it be by excess. I think the city hall should have also sinned by excess. I think they should have taken an attitude that could preserve the greatest number of people. That’s why I’m against the decree”, he opines.