Authorities in Hanoi have allowed ninth graders in 17 suburban localities to resume offline learning next week.

The municipal administration previously permitted ninth-grade students in Ba Vi District, a low-risk locality, to return to school on November 8 following a six-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The city’s Department of Education and Training later proposed that ninth graders in the remaining 16 suburban districts, as well as Son Tay Town, be permitted to resume offline schooling.

Hanoi currently has 12 districts, 17 suburban districts, and one town with about 175 wards, 383 communes, and 21 commune-level towns.

The proposal was approved by the Hanoi People’s Committee on Saturday.

Accordingly, each commune in these suburban locales will select one high school where ninth-grade students can go back to class from Monday next week.

These communes must not have recorded any COVID-19 infection over the past 14 days.

The students must only attend either morning or afternoon classes each day, and food must not be served at the selected schools.

Teachers are only allowed to give offline lessons if they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Students in other grades still have to continue remote learning, while teaching and learning activities for kindergarteners will remain suspended.

Authorities in Hanoi have required all students to stay home and switch to remote learning since May 4 amid a serious outbreak.

Hanoi has documented more than 7,500 COVID-19 infections since the fourth virus wave hit Vietnam on April 27.

The capital logged 277, 275, and 217 cases on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, respectively.

It recorded 289 cases on Monday, the highest daily count since the beginning of the fourth wave.

Over 6.1 million out of eight million people of the city have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot, with more than 5.3 million of them fully vaccinated, according to the national COVID-19 vaccination portal.

Local authorities plan to vaccinate over 95 percent of local children aged 12 to 17 from the remaining months of this year to the end of the first quarter of 2022, with those from 16 to 17 years old getting the shots first.

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