Romania To Re-open Schools Despite Virus Spike

Romanian Prime Minister Ludovic Orban pledged Wednesday schools would re-open in September under strict hygiene rules, as the country continues to fight a spike in the number of coronavirus cases

Bucharest, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Aug, 2020 ) :Romanian Prime Minister Ludovic Orban pledged Wednesday schools would re-open in September under strict hygiene rules, as the country continues to fight a spike in the number of coronavirus cases.

"Our decision is clear, schools will start on 14 September", Orban said during a speech in parliament.

He mentioned that students, teachers and other school staff will have to wear masks and that disinfectants should be available at all times.

Romania closed schools, kindergartens and universities in March to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus and subsequently decided to keep them shut for the rest of the academic year.

Since then, Romania has faced a jump in the number of infections, which on Wednesday reached a new daily record with 1,415 cases reported in the last 24 hours.

So far a total of 65,177 people have been infected in Romania and 2,807 have died, according to government data.

Orban clarified that local authorities could decide to keep some schools shut if there were more then three new infections per 1,000 inhabitants in a particular area.

In that scenario students would then have to attend lessons online from home.

However, Orban himself admitted that hundreds of thousands of Romanian children do not have access to a computer and 20 percent of schools don't have an internet connection.

The government has promised to buy 250,000 tablets for students who can't afford one and need it for online lessons, but according to NGOs several times that number would be needed in order to match demand.

Meanwhile, the opposition Social Democrats (PSD) says they plan to bring a vote of no-confidence in Orban's government next week over what it says are failures in the response to the pandemic.