Three Vietnamese major cities and 43 other provinces have announced a one-week school break for pupils from kindergarten level to high school to prevent the spreading of the Wuhan-rooted coronavirus.

Illustrative photo by Ngoc Thanh/Vnexpress.

The two biggest cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, each detecting three cases positive with nCoV, have granted a week off as of Monday to 4 million students.

While other provinces and cities namely Vinh Phuc, Thanh Hoa, Long An, Kien Giang, among others have allowed their pupils to be away from schools for seven days from February 3 to February 9 while as many as 70 universities across the country have rescheduled and postponed their classes.

The decisions were made following the unpredictable evolution of the epidemic which has caused eight infections across the country.

This is the first time ever such provinces have offered such a long school break for students due to an epidemic. Students across the country already took 7 to 16 days of Lunar New Year break. Classes resumed on January 30-31 and suspended again from today.