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Walking with children: What's allowed and how to stay safe
24/04/2020
FROM Sunday onwards, children aged 14 and under will be allowed to go out for walks with their parents without the need to justify where they are going, or for their outings to have any 'essential' purpose such as supermarket shopping or collecting prescriptions – and the government has released a series of guidelines to ensure parents or guardians know what to do to protect themselves and their little ones, and to keep on the right side of the law.
Health authorities have urged parents to stick to the '1-1-1-1' rule: A maximum of one walk a day, for a maximum of one hour, within no more than a one-kilometre radius of home (about two-thirds of a mile), and with just one adult at a time.
The adult can be a parent, guardian, or sibling aged 18 or over, but must be someone from the child's household, and only one at a time.
On each walk, the adult can have up to three children with him or her; if they have more than three sons or daughters under 15, they will need to go out with the fourth and subsequent ones separately at a later time of day.
Those aged 15, 16 and 17 are not allowed out 'just for walks' like younger children, but are permitted to carry out necessary errands such as shopping or dog-walking, provided they do so on their own.
Walking out with children must be between the hours of 09.00 and 21.00 only, and adult and kids must maintain a distance of at least one metre from anyone else they meet.
They cannot stop to pet dogs being walked, even if these are on a long lead since, even though it is not thought that domestic animals can catch the virus easily and they are unable to pass it onto humans, the virus may stay on the dog's coat or collar for long enough to pass it to their owners.
Children are not obliged to wear masks and gloves – although this is advisable if it is possible – but social distancing is more important and is mandatory.
Parents are legally responsible for ensuring their children stick to the rules.
Although children still cannot go outside to play as they did before the lockdown, there are no rules against running, skipping, jumping, and so on, as long as they keep to the minimum distance between themselves and others.
They can even take a ball or skateboard with them, but cannot play with other children or use public parks.
Children displaying symptoms compatible with those associated with the SARS-CoV-2 strain of the Coronavirus – fever, dry cough, sore throat, general malaise – are not permitted to leave the family home; likewise if they have been quarantined due to having been in contact with a confirmed case, are recovering from Covid-19 themselves, or have been showing symptoms leading to their being isolated for 15 days.
Even though there are no time-slot restrictions on children being out after 09.00 and before dark, health minister Salvador Illa encourages parents to avoid 'peak times' where possible; where parents in the neighbourhood are in touch with each other, they should try to 'stagger' their walks between them so as to avoid each other.
One of the main reasons the requirement for children's outings being for 'essential errands' was lifted was widespread concern about crowds – if kids were only permitted to accompany their parents to supermarkets and similar chores, the number of children sharing store space with each other and adults would increase.
And given that shops allowed to open have to stick to a set maximum number of customers on the premises, the pavement queues could suddenly multiply if a proportion of those customers had at least one child with them, restricting entry to other adults.
Even more detailed recommendations are set to be published tomorrow (Saturday) by the ministry of health, based upon advice from epidemiologists, paediatricians and child psychologists.
Related Topics
FROM Sunday onwards, children aged 14 and under will be allowed to go out for walks with their parents without the need to justify where they are going, or for their outings to have any 'essential' purpose such as supermarket shopping or collecting prescriptions – and the government has released a series of guidelines to ensure parents or guardians know what to do to protect themselves and their little ones, and to keep on the right side of the law.
Health authorities have urged parents to stick to the '1-1-1-1' rule: A maximum of one walk a day, for a maximum of one hour, within no more than a one-kilometre radius of home (about two-thirds of a mile), and with just one adult at a time.
The adult can be a parent, guardian, or sibling aged 18 or over, but must be someone from the child's household, and only one at a time.
On each walk, the adult can have up to three children with him or her; if they have more than three sons or daughters under 15, they will need to go out with the fourth and subsequent ones separately at a later time of day.
Those aged 15, 16 and 17 are not allowed out 'just for walks' like younger children, but are permitted to carry out necessary errands such as shopping or dog-walking, provided they do so on their own.
Walking out with children must be between the hours of 09.00 and 21.00 only, and adult and kids must maintain a distance of at least one metre from anyone else they meet.
They cannot stop to pet dogs being walked, even if these are on a long lead since, even though it is not thought that domestic animals can catch the virus easily and they are unable to pass it onto humans, the virus may stay on the dog's coat or collar for long enough to pass it to their owners.
Children are not obliged to wear masks and gloves – although this is advisable if it is possible – but social distancing is more important and is mandatory.
Parents are legally responsible for ensuring their children stick to the rules.
Although children still cannot go outside to play as they did before the lockdown, there are no rules against running, skipping, jumping, and so on, as long as they keep to the minimum distance between themselves and others.
They can even take a ball or skateboard with them, but cannot play with other children or use public parks.
Children displaying symptoms compatible with those associated with the SARS-CoV-2 strain of the Coronavirus – fever, dry cough, sore throat, general malaise – are not permitted to leave the family home; likewise if they have been quarantined due to having been in contact with a confirmed case, are recovering from Covid-19 themselves, or have been showing symptoms leading to their being isolated for 15 days.
Even though there are no time-slot restrictions on children being out after 09.00 and before dark, health minister Salvador Illa encourages parents to avoid 'peak times' where possible; where parents in the neighbourhood are in touch with each other, they should try to 'stagger' their walks between them so as to avoid each other.
One of the main reasons the requirement for children's outings being for 'essential errands' was lifted was widespread concern about crowds – if kids were only permitted to accompany their parents to supermarkets and similar chores, the number of children sharing store space with each other and adults would increase.
And given that shops allowed to open have to stick to a set maximum number of customers on the premises, the pavement queues could suddenly multiply if a proportion of those customers had at least one child with them, restricting entry to other adults.
Even more detailed recommendations are set to be published tomorrow (Saturday) by the ministry of health, based upon advice from epidemiologists, paediatricians and child psychologists.
Related Topics
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