Egypt reopens schools while implementing precautionary measures to combat COVID-19

Tens of thousands of schools have reopened across Egypt to start the new academic year while implementing precautionary measures against the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Education Ministry. The Ministry's plan for the 2020/2021 academic year is based on maintaining social distancing, sufficient ventilation and regular disinfection at schools, while raising awareness of students and parents about the pandemic and necessary precautions, reports Xinhua news agency.

There will also be temperature checks for students, teachers and visitors before entering schools. Egypt has about 23 million students in over 56,000 public schools nationwide. Students of each grade will attend school for a specific number of days only, not the whole week.

"Precautionary measures are observed at schools, social distancing is maintained and students of different grades are scheduled to attend in different days," Reda Hegazy, deputy education minister for teachers affairs, told Xinhua on saturday at one of the preparatory schools in Giza.

He explained that there is a new official TV channel to provide classes to students, while teachers at schools will complete the process side by side with the TV classes. At the gate of a high school near Cairo University, the temperatures of students were checked before they headed to the morning assembly, where all students and teachers were seen with face masks on.

Schools were suspended in Egypt since in March in the wake of the pandemic. Amid declining Covid-19 cases and deaths, the country has been easing restrictions over the past three months. So far, Egypt has registered 105,159 Covid-19 cases and 6,099 deaths, with 98,089 recoveries.