The Maldives government on Monday decided to close the schools again for this week amidst the swine flu epidemic in the nation.
In a press conference at the President’s Office, Minister of Defence Adam Shareef announced that President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom decided to close schools for the next three days deferring to the wishes of the public.
However, the defence minister stated that only certain schools will be closed based on necessity with regards to the flu situation.
The press conference was held jointly with the ministers of Health and Education.
Health Minister Abdulla Nazim said that the viral flu epidemic, including the spread of swine flu, is slowly improving and that they expect normal conditions to resume in a short while.
Meanwhile, Education Minister Dr Aishath Shiham reiterated that the schools were reopened last Sunday based on the statistics of the Health Protection Agency (HPA) and that the government decided to close them again after deeming it necessary. She assured that students will be able to receive their missed lessons.
Despite reopening the schools on Sunday and Monday, the majority of parents did not send their children to school. Teachers and officials of the education sector have reported that most of the classes were empty and that, in some schools, less than twenty percent of the student populations had turned up. Fewer students were reported to have attended school on Monday than the previous day.
According to HPA’s latest report, total 501 people suspected of having the H1N1 virus were tested since last January out of which 185 tested positive for swine flu. To date, five people have died of the disease.
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