School holiday not extended; teaching staff vaccination to become prerequisite

President Klaus Iohannis announced on Thursday that the school holiday will not be extended, and that school children will return for in-person instruction where epidemiological and health safety conditions permit, adding that a prerequisite was introduced for the schools to be able to function normally, namely the vaccination coverage of the teaching staff, agerpres reports.

"At the end of this week, the holiday will not be extended and, from Monday, where the health safety and epidemiological conditions permit, the students will be able to return to school in person. That is valid for kindergartens, for schools, therefore for the pre-university system. However, a new prerequisite will be introduced for the schools to be able to operate with in-person instruction, namely the vaccination coverage of the teaching staff. Experts, specialists from the two ministries, from INSP [National Public Health Institute] will continue discussions tomorrow, and a joint order of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health will be issued to provide clear-cut details for these issues," Iohannis told a news conference at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace.

He insisted that vaccination is the only chance to overcome the pandemic.

"We can look around, we can see that in Western Europe there is a growing pandemic again and the conclusion is a sad and simple one: the pandemic is not over. But we have the solution: it is called vaccination," he said.