Ministry of Education, on Sunday, reopened schools in the Greater Male' Region, following a temporary closure on August 9.
Schools located in the region, the epicentre of Maldives' COVID-19 outbreak, only commenced teaching for grades nine to 12, while online lessons were provided for students of lower grades.
The ministry revealed that the decision to close all schools in Male', and its suburbs Hulhumale' and Vilimale', was reached after consultations with relevant institutions including the Health Protection Agency (HPA) amid a second surge of COVID-19 cases.
According to Minister of Education Dr Aishath Ali, schools will enforce a strict observation of social distancing within classrooms and screen students for their temperature when entering the school premises.
During last month, authorities tightened the safety measures implemented in the Greater Male' region, following an alarming upsurge of COVID-19 cases after the state initiated efforts to steer the country towards a 'new normal' with the phased easing of lockdown restrictions.
After a long period of recording over 100 daily cases, the numbers have recently fallen to two-digits for the most part of September. Within this same period, the number of recoveries saw a significant increase, bringing the number of recovered cases to 88.9 percent.
Maldives currently records a total of 10,465 virus cases of which 1,144 are active cases, in addition to 9,310 recoveries and 34 deaths.
Despite the sustained decrease in virus cases, HPA has renewed calls for citizens to adhere to protective measures to contain the spread of the virus, cautioning against a public sentiment that the outbreak has been “controlled”.
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