Hanoi has seen a continuous fall in the number of daily new Covid-19 infections over the past 20 days, thus, the city's authorities are considering schools for all age groups of children, according to the municipal Department of Health.

Yesterday [March 31] was the 4th day in a row that Hanoi had not recorded any Covid-19 deaths in recent months, the department said, adding that the total number of fatalities from Covid-19 (from April 27, 2021, until now) in Hanoi is 1,320.

Hanoi on March 31 recorded 8,057 new Covid-19 cases, nearly 100 cases less than the previous day, and the infection tally in the fourth wave so far has stood at 1,475,320 cases, the department added.

Hanoi has seen a continuous fall in the number of daily new Covid-19 infections over the past 20 days. Photo: thu Trang

As of the first quarter of 2022, more than 85% of people aged 18 and above in Hanoi received the third Covid-19 vaccine shot. Besides, almost all people who needed a booster dose of the vaccine were administered.

Vietnam's number of new Covid-19 cases continued to drop with 92,344 cases recorded in the past 24 hours, including 11 imported cases, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH).

The national caseload reached more than 9.4 million, the MoH said, adding that 250,482 patients were given the all-clear during the day, raising the number of convalescents to 7,519,013. Some 39 deaths were recorded, totaling 42,493 so far, or around 0.4% of all infections.

Vietnam has given over 206 million Covid-19 vaccine shots so far, with 79.6% of the population having been fully vaccinated and 51.2% having received the third Covid-19 vaccine shot.

As the Covid-19 pandemic enters its third year, UNICEF Vietnam is deeply concerned about children’s learning loss and the increasing risk of rising inequality for too many children in the country.

A global report released on March 31 stresses the urgent and critical need to address the colossal loss to children’s learning worldwide. With a combined 2 trillion hours of in-person school lost due to school closures since March 2020, students in more than four in five countries have fallen behind in their learning.

“When children are not able to interact with their teachers and their peers directly, their learning suffers, their cognitive skills and brain development suffers, and the social and employment skills that come from interaction and communication suffer,” said the report.

After such a long period out of school, this may become a permanent learning loss if that interaction is not immediately addressed. The rising inequality in access to learning means that education risks becoming the greatest divider instead of the greatest equalizer, the report added.

Local students in Hanoi's outskirt district of Ba Vi attend in-person class in 2021. Photo: Ngoc Tu

With numbers dropping and high vaccination coverage of adults, the risks to children of being out of school are significantly greater than the health risks faced in school. Citing health as the reason for school closure fails to recognize that the child’s learning and development are negatively impacted every day they remain out of school, their mental health is impacted, while the risk of infection and serious disease remains lower among children.

“It is a clear recommendation of UNICEF, all key partners, all educators, as well as of WHO, that schools for all age groups should be opened irrespective of vaccination status,” the report stressed.

In crisis conditions, there are always difficult decisions that force difficult trade-offs, and UNICEF is much aware of the unprecedented challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to schools in Vietnam.

Around 99% of Covid-19 cases in Vietnam are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms. Education cannot wait. The country needs bold action to enable every child to return to school, the report noted.

UNICEF Vietnam strongly encourages all school districts and, in particular, the private schools and kindergartens within those districts to put children first.