Illustrative photo (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam requested the Ministry of Health to soon issue guidance on COVID-19 testing at school and for health monitoring of children with illnesses or underlying health conditions, at an online meeting with representatives of the 63 provinces and cities held on February 17.
Dam highlighted the importance of letting children go back to schools and stressed solutions to do so must be long-term, proactive, vigilant, and without extremes, noting that pandemic prevention and control options for schools ought to be detailed, updated, and trained for people involved frequently.
He said it is necessary to continue the vaccination plan for children between five and under 12 years old in line with the guidance of the health body; to control the rate of infections at school; and to come up with ways to properly tackle such infections and related people.
Dam also ordered the Ministry of Education and Training to further organise and complete online and television teaching methods as part of the educational reform programme instead of just implementing it during the pandemic.
Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam speaks at the event (Photo: VNA) According to a report by the Ministry of Education and Training at the function, from February 7 to date, 93.71 percent of the students nationwide have returned to face-to-face classes. All universities have already had plans for the resumption of in-person classes.
As planned, from February 21, 59 out of the country's 63 localities will allow kindergarten children to be back to school, while primary, secondary and high school students nationwide will return to face-to-face learning.
Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son said the entire nation logged some 329,000 COVID-19 cases from February 1 to 15, of whom 8.6 percent and 4.8 percent are aged 5-18 and under five, respectively./.
