{"id":22467,"date":"2022-04-06T09:00:20","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T16:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=22467"},"modified":"2022-03-31T12:08:03","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T19:08:03","slug":"camosun-college-students-weigh-in-on-rescinded-mask-mandate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2022\/04\/06\/camosun-college-students-weigh-in-on-rescinded-mask-mandate\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun College students weigh in on rescinded mask mandate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Friday, March 11, the provincial government announced revised health guidelines that included the lifting of the provincial mask mandate. While masks are still required in some high-vulnerability settings, such as health-care facilities, and businesses may choose to require masks, most citizens are no longer required to wear them in most indoor situations. Camosun administration encourages students to use their own discretion while respecting others who wish to continue to social distance and wear masks, but the college no longer requires masks to be worn in its buildings.<\/p>\n<p>First-year Massage Therapy student Delaney Booker says that she never had a problem wearing a mask in the first place, and, despite the relaxed rules, mask wearing remains sensible in close-contact situations or when there are lots of people around.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Not wearing masks] feels pretty comfortable in class, especially because we\u2019re such a small group of students, but when we\u2019re doing anything practical, definitely still wear masks,\u201d she says. \u201cWe get pretty close to each other, so personally I wear a mask still, and then when we\u2019re in our clinic we also have masks on as well. I think the amount of people around you still plays a role.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_22112\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22112\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/20220202_123457.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-22112\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/20220202_123457-300x146.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"146\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/20220202_123457-300x146.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/20220202_123457.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22112\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Masks are no longer required at Camosun College (file photo).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Jacob Amato is a first-year Business student who feels relieved that masks are no longer required, but supports individual choice to continue to wear them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m glad it\u2019s lifted, honestly. It\u2019s been two years since the start of COVID, and I know that there\u2019s lots of people with breathing problems, and it\u2019s just kind of a pain,\u201d he says. \u201cAll the provinces seem to be doing it, so we\u2019re following suit, and a lot of countries have already lifted them, so I think it\u2019s about time that people got back to normal. But if you choose to wear a mask, that\u2019s totally up to you and I\u2019m fine with people who still want to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>First-year Civil Engineering student Cody Dalgleish says that he is fine with deferring to the provincial authorities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI like not wearing a mask, but I guess it\u2019s up to the officials,\u201d he says. \u201cIf they think it\u2019s safe to do so and we\u2019re not going to have a jump in cases, then I\u2019m happy not to, but if they were to say that we need you to wear masks to prevent it, it\u2019s a small price to pay. I\u2019d rather be in school, personally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>First-year Education Assistant and Community Support student Jasmine Vuong says that she\u2019s concerned about the relaxed rules, and she supports continued social distancing, particularly between those who choose not to wear a mask and those who still wish to.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m feeling more nervous, since I have underlying health conditions,\u201d she says. \u201cIf people choose to wear a mask, they can stay in one spot, and people who choose not to wear a mask, then they sit somewhere else. Just for me, it\u2019s a bit more of reassurance for my safety.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Second-year Business Administration student Cierra Kamis is simply happy to see the end of the COVID era.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just want things to go back to normal; I stopped wearing a mask once they lifted it,\u201d she says. \u201cI work at a restaurant and most of my co-workers stopped wearing them, too. It just seems more normal now, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>First-year Kinesiology student Jace Francis is relieved to hear of the change, and remarks that not wearing a mask indoors feels eerily criminal now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s good&#8230; I thought it was kind of annoying having to wear masks,\u201d he says. \u201cIt sort of feels like every time I walk in somewhere, it\u2019s illegal, not wearing a mask. It feels good not having to wear one anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Friday, March 11, the provincial government announced revised health guidelines that included the lifting of the provincial mask mandate. While masks are still required in some high-vulnerability settings, such as health-care facilities, and businesses may choose to require masks, most citizens are no longer required to wear them in most indoor situations. Camosun administration [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22112,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,267],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-april-6-2022"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22467"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22468,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22467\/revisions\/22468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}