Ljubljana - As part of Slovenian schoolchildren start their winter break, the newspaper Delo welcomes the easing of Covid-19 restrictions but regrets masks at schools have not been abolished as well.

"The only thing that remains is masks. 84,694 primary and 34,350 secondary students from eastern Slovenia will have them on their faces for a whole week longer. Even though the mask has been used for the umptieth number of days, lying around pockets and bags, and has been on the floor a couple of times.

"They will wear them even though virtually whole classes have recovered, been vaccinated or both. They will have them on their faces even though they take them off as soon as they are out of school to stick their heads together, after they have done the same at PE or lunch. We may have looked for guidance abroad on masks sooner than for quarantines," writes the paper in the front-page commentary headlined Let Kids Get Some Peace at Last.