EduMin Anisie: Children in Bucharest go to school tomorrow; most probably Tuesday classes will go online

The Minister of Education, Monica Anisie, stated that pupils will go on Monday to school in Bucharest and most probably classes will go to an online system on Tuesday, after the incidence of COVID-19 in the Capital announced in the Strategic Communication Group (GCS) report has gone up, on Sunday, to 3.02 cases per thousand people.

"Tomorrow they go to school (...) Most probably on Tuesday face-to-face classes will be suspended, yet didactic activity will continue in online system. I would like to make an appeal to everyone, that is to respect the norms for the prevention and combating of disease, because the rate is already higher and higher," said Anisie, on Sunday, at private broadcaster Digi 24.

She mentioned that in Bucharest 8,057 tablets were delivered to pupils. "The Minister of Education has sent these tablets ever since September 25 to the City of Bucharest School Inspectorate, and at the level of the Inspectorate they were not distributed to educational units until last week. We have solved this situation at the level of Bucharest and at this moment the school inspectors told me they have distributed towards education units those tablets in the program 'School from home' that the Ministry of Education ran," said Anisie.

According to the Education Minister, these 8,057 tablets were made available to pupils who requested them in March - April, when the country entered lockdown.

"In agreement with the joint order issued by the Education Ministry and the Health Ministry, at a cumulated incidence rate over the alert limit of 3 per thousand people, the Public Health Directorate will present to the City of Bucharest Committee for Emergency Situations an analysis of the epidemiological situation. Depending on the existence of community spread in the locality, as well as the number of hotspots existing in education units or other risk criteria, the City of Bucharest Committee for Emergency Situations may decide by issuing a decision the temporary suspension of didactic activities which imply the face-to-face presence in education units, so for 14 days the City of Bucharest Committee for Emergency Situations decides to suspend classes. In the absence of these decisions however, education units will work in the hybrid 2nd scenario, as they have functioned up to now," Monica Anisie mentioned.

According to the Education Minister, the Public Health Directorate has 24 hours to relay to the City of Bucharest Committee for Emergency Situations the COVID-19 incidence rate.