NDO – The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) has allowed schools across the nation to hold the opening ceremony for the 2020-2021 academic year online, set for September 5, amid the complex developments of COVID-19.
According to Nguyen Xuan Thanh, Head of the MoET’s Department of Secondary Education, his ministry has granted permission to localities, depending on their pandemic circumstances, to hold the ceremony online.
The opening day of the new academic year should be held concisely and convey the message of “pausing going to school but not stopping learning” to students, Thanh said, suggesting schools ,depending on their conditions, can use a room and set up new school-year backdrop so that students at home can still follow new school-year messages delivered from the principals in a familiar “back-to-school” atmosphere across the country.
The ministry has planned several scenarios to prepare for the new school-year amid the COVID-19 epidemic, the educational official informed, stressing that localities that are implementing strict social distancing should put the safety of both students and teachers first.
The MoET also urged schools to promote IT and online teaching methods to cope with the complicated nature of COVID-19. The ministry is also streamlining the curriculum for the upcoming school-year and will issue it in the near future, Thanh said.
The new academic year will see students from preschools, primary, secondary, and high schools, along with those at continuing educational establishments, return to school before September 1, with the opening ceremony taking place on September 5.
The first semester is expected to conclude before January 16, while the second semester will be completed before May 25, so that the school-year can end before May 31.
140 citizens complete medical quarantine
On the morning of August 17, Soc Trang provincial authorities granted certificates to 140 Vietnamese citizens who completed their 14-day medical isolation in the province, after being repatriated from Canada and the Republic of Korea.
During their quarantine, they were given health checks, free meals and other essential items for daily life at the local quarantine camps.
Samples for COVID-19 testing were taken to the Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute, with all of them, including 29 pregnant women, testing twice negative for the SAR-CoV2 virus.
So far, the Mekong Delta province has hosted nearly 2,000 Vietnamese citizens and foreigners in medical isolation. Through testing, there have been no COVID-19 infection cases among them.
Dong Nai lifts medical isolation on Bien Hoa City’s Ho Van Dai Street
After 14 days, a blockade on a residential area on Ho Van Dai Street, Bien Hoa City in Dong Nai Province was lifted at noon today (August 17).
The order was imposed on the area due to a couple of COVID-19 patients, known as Patients 595 and 669, who live there.
Functional forces removed the isolation fence at both ends of Ho Van Dai Street and some alleyways, while Cay Cham market on the route is still closed until August 31 for further epidemic prevention work.
Before removing the blockade, on August 16, medical staff took a second round of samples from 620 people, including 575 residents living on the route and on-site functional force members on duty during the lockdown. All samples were negative for SARS-CoV-2.
Regarding Patients 595 and 669, who are being treated at Dong Nai Lung Hospital, Director of the Dong Nai Department of Health Phan Huy Anh Vu said that both are in stable health without cough, fever or abnormal symptoms. In particular, Patient 595 has now tested negative for SARS-CoV-2.
Source: Nhan Dan Online
