Bayview Family Practice fully supports this at present: while certain children with
special needs can be exempted from this, there is no reason why the vast majority of children (from 3rd class up) including those with asthma or other respiratory difficulties should not wear a mask.

Indeed, these very children are recommended to use a mask to prevent them
getting infected with COVID19.

This morning on the radio, Minister for Education Norma Foley conveyed that Gp’s were in a position to certify children as being exempt from the wearing of face masks. This has not been agreed upon.

Our understanding is that parents and schools can come to a decision on this themselves. We will not be providing certificates for children to let a school
know that a child is asthmatic or has another condition: we are
extremely busy at the moment managing patients presenting with covid
symptoms, non-covid care, chronic disease management , vaccinations, and
all the other issues which we deal with in General Practice every day.

We simply do not have the time to prepare these certs which are
unnecessary except in exceptional circumstances.

If you are a concerned parent we suggest you contact your school principal and the Dept of Education until more instructions are forthcoming.

Like everything , masks will take time to get used to if children are
not familiar with using them already.  We expect that schools will be
considerate of this and they know the pupils in their school communities
so well that we do not expect that there will be issues with it.

We recommend that parents try a variety of masks for their children
so that they can have a mask that is comfortable, snug-fitting, and
safe.

TYPES OF MASKS

We do not recommend scarf-masks as their efficacy is not proven.
While face coverings (two or three layers of fabric) can be useful in
preventing some infection, we recommend surgical face coverings as they
are superior. FFP2 / N95 masks are tighter-fitting and are better at
preventing transmission of infection, but they take time to get used to
and we suggest that children wear them in other settings for short
periods of time before wearing them for a full day.