Amsterdam asks children to wear mouth caps: ‘Parents put in front of the block’
Although the mask obligation in the Netherlands only applies to people aged 13 and over, the Tinteltuin also asks children aged 4 to 12 to wear a mask.
“That is for the safety of our drivers,” says Irene Schimmel, chairman of the executive board of the Tinteltuin, which has more than seventy childcare locations in Amsterdam-Noord, the Zaanstreek and Waterland and takes care of about 6000 children a week. “Most of our drivers are over 65 and a driver was recently infected by a child. When we thought: what can we do to come up with that risk?”
Do not mold that it is a request, duty. “We ask parents to bring a face mask for the ride from school to daycare. If parents don’t want it, kind of don’t, then don’t.”
‘Don’t saddle children’
changes, Boink, the interest association of Parents in Childcare, rejects the action. “Stop self-invented measures,” says Boink chairman Gjalt Jellesma. “Yes, we know that children can also prevent infections, but why do you have to deviate from national policy? If the underlying idea is that employees are not vaccinated and there is therefore a fear of contamination, something must be done about it. We should not burden children with rules that daycares come up with. If you think you know better than virologists, then you should apply there.”
Jellesma is disappointed that a shelter ‘will make wild movements in panic’. “You put parents in front of the block with such an action.”