Premier makes efforts to reassure parents fearful of plan to return children to classrooms in fall

New in this update:The premier is reassuring parents who are fearful about plan to return children to classrooms full time this fall. The plan to create learning cohorts could see up to 60 elementary school students and 120 high school students having contact with each other during the school day.The province will spend an extra $45.6 million to ensure safety measures, including making masks available, hiring more custodians, increasing cleaning of high-contact surfaces, and increasing the number of hand-hygiene stations School districts have been given the autonomy to implement the plan as they see fit.Meanwhile, face masks will be mandatory on transit across much of the province starting August 24. It's a move that the Provincial Health Officer has been calling for over the past month. However, BC Transit says there will be no enforcement or penalties. It says it wants the new policy implemented as "an educational step."It was 75 years ago today that the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima Japan, killing 140,000 people. Today that tragic anniversary will be remembered in Nanaimo. Peace songs will be sung, instrumentals played and every half hour, there will be a reminder of Hiroshima Day with a minute of silence.