1.4 million students return to classrooms as China begins new school year with strict precautions

China on Tuesday began the new school year with strict measures against the novel coronavirus in place. In Wuhan, where the pandemic originated last December, a total of 2,842 kindergarten, primary and secondary schools reopened on Tuesday morning to welcome about 1.4 million students, reports Xinhua news agency.

According to Wang Chifu, deputy director of the Hubei provincial capital's education bureau, primary and secondary school students in Wuhan should carry masks with them, but they do not have to wear them at school. Wuhan currently has no confirmed Covid-19 cases. Though the pandemic has waned in China, schools at all levels still took strict measures to safeguard the health of students.

Similar measures were being implemented in schools across the country, with students in Shanghai, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Guangdong and Yunnan also ushering in their new semesters on Tuesday. In Shanghai, over 1.5 million primary and secondary school students began school on Tuesday while in Shenzhen, students in 2,628 kindergarten, primary and secondary schools also went back to school. So far, China's overall caseload stood at 85,058, including 216 patients who were still being treated, with three in severe condition. The death toll currently stood at 4,634.