The Hanoi People's Committee on December 2 approved the proposal of the municipal Department of Education and Training, allowing all high school students to return to school from December 6.

Accordingly, tenth, eleventh, twelfth graders and students of vocational and continuing education centers in 30 districts can join in-class teaching from Monday next week.

These districts must not have recorded any Covid-19 infection over the past 14 days.

The students will only attend either morning or afternoon classes each day, and at the selected schools there would be no mid-day meals.

Teachers are only allowed to give offline lessons if they are fully vaccinated against coronavirus.

Face-to-face teaching would be immediately stopped if there occurs any epidemiological incident related to Covid-19 disease.

Ninth graders in Hanoi’s suburban district of Soc Son resumed offline learning from November 22. Photo: Ngoc Tu

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

Previously, Hanoi authorities have allowed ninth-graders in 18 suburban localities to resume offline learning from November 22, following a six-month hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Over the past week, over 36,000 students in Hanoi have returned to school safely, with no infections detected in schools.

Since November 23, Hanoi has begun vaccination against Covid-19 for children aged 15-17. The injection rate has reached more than 90%.

Besides, bringing students back to school in this situation must be done with careful preparation, vaccination for children aged 12-15 needs to go on and a plan for secondary school students to return to class should be formulated as soon as possible, said an urgent dispatch signed by Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Chu Ngoc Anh yesterday night.

The Hanoi mayor also noted that the Covid-19 pandemic is still progressing in Hanoi and the country with multiple outbreaks observed and new cases recorded daily. Therefore, prior to the reopening of schools, it will be important to take the necessary steps to ensure safety for students and teachers.

Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Chu Ngoc Anh on December 2 also asked localities in Hanoi to immediately deploy treatment facilities for mild Covid-19 patients in accordance with the model of makeshift medical stations, ensuring that each ward has an average of at least 150 treatment beds.

Employees of Ba Dinh Medical Center in Hanoi rehearsed taking care of Covid-19 patients at home on November 6.  Photo: Ngoc Tu

Currently, the whole city has 579 units at the district, commune, and township levels. Thus, the total number of hospital beds prepared at the grassroots level would be more than 86,000.

In addition, the functional agencies were assigned to urgently prepare guidelines for treating Covid-19 patients at home including a list of drugs, treatment protocol, and a procedure to refer the severe patients to higher-level hospitals.    

The admission and treatment of Covid-19 patients must follow the motto of on-site force, on-site command, on-site vehicle, and on-site logistics, and must be operated under the guidance of the Department of Health.

Human resources for health care at the grassroots are mobilized from universities, colleges of medicine, private medical facilities, and retired doctors.

In recent days, the pandemic situation in Hanoi has worsened. On December 2 only, Hanoi recorded over 500 new cases, the highest daily count since the beginning of the fourth wave in the city with the number of community-acquired infections being up to 38%. It is expected that the number of cases will rise in the coming days, especially at the end of the year.

The whole city has 12 clusters of infections. Hanoi has documented more than 7,500 Covid-19 infections since the fourth virus wave hit Vietnam on April 27, of which there are nearly 2,500 community cases and over 4,150 others found in quarantine areas.