Masks and other public health measures are playing critically important roles amid the Omicron outbreak, as schools continue to grapple with growing COVID cases, the Auckland Primary Principals' Association (APPA) says.
In Auckland, a "significant number" of school children are already in isolation at home due to the outbreak. Auckland alone reported nearly 1800 of Sunday's 2522 new cases of COVID-19.
APPA president Stephen Lethbridge says schools are trying to make the learning experience as normal as possible for children amid the outbreak while also keeping them safe.
"I was wandering around the perimeters of classrooms last week and I was listening to the learning that was going on - listening to the happiness and seeing smiling eyes," he told AM. "It is important for the kids to be back at school."
Air purifiers had been delivered to some schools to help reduce the risk of transmission in classrooms but Lethbridge said open doors and windows were the best forms of protection.
"Principals and senior leaders around the region will be going into classrooms and checking on Co2 levels and just reminding people to open doors."
Children in years 4 and over also have to wear masks inside - with coverings encouraged for years 3 and below but not compulsory.
Lethbridge said the mask mandate was "significantly important".
"It's really crucial that kids are masked up from year 4," he said. "Schools are also trying to maintain distancing - so some of them will have split break times so not the whole school is playing together at the same time.
"There are many, many ways that we're trying to mitigate the risk."
The Ministry of Health says mask-wearing helps decrease the amount of virus spread by an infectious person and assists with stopping a person from inhaling virus particles.
