Coronavirus: 73% of B.C. parents support mandatory masks for back-to-school, poll suggests

Parents in B.C. overwhelmingly support kids having to wear non-medical masks when school returns in September, according to a new national poll.

Seventy-three per cent of respondents in the province said they are in favour of the requirement, said the poll conducted by Leger on Wednesday, as cases of COVID-19 are spiking.

B.C. and Ontario tied for the most support, while Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba had the least at 47 per cent.

Overall, 62 per cent of Canadians support the idea of kids wearing masks when back in class, the poll suggests.

Of those, 41 per cent said they support students wearing masks at all times when at school or on a school bus, while an additional 21 per cent support it, but just outside of class and on a bus.

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British Columbia also leads the way in support for a combination of online and in-person instruction, with 76 per cent in approval.

In June, B.C. was the only jurisdiction in North America that opened all schools back up to in-person teaching, on a voluntary, part-time basis.

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Only two cases of COVID-19 were linked to the school system after that time, and both of them were teachers, with no spread to students.

Nationally, 59 per cent of parents support a hybrid learning model. Quebec has the lowest support at 40 per cent.

This poll was conducted from July 17 to 19, with 1,524 Canadian and 1,004 American adults, recruited from Leger’s online panel. It is accurate to within +/ – 2.51 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.