SCHOOLS in Laos are set to reopen on Sept 1 after being closed since April due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the Laotian Times, the Ministry of Education and Sports said in a notice that all schools for general education across the country can resume physical classes across the country, including in Vientiane capital area.
The notice stated that administrators, as well as teachers and employees in general education institutions across Laos, are required to receive two doses of vaccine against Covid-19 before they can reopen their respective schools.
The ministry said that during school hours, administrators, teachers, and students must wear face masks, wash their hands with soap or sanitiser, and maintain a social distance of at least one meter.
However not all schools will reopen next month as during the school closure period, some were used as state quarantine centres to accommodate Lao migrant workers from Thailand and are still in use.
Schools located in the red zones with a high number of infections will also remain closed.
The ministry said schools should be ready to provide timetables to their teachers as well as support student registration for the current academic year by this week.
Authorities have also asked parents to cooperate in sending their children to schools and to understand and trust the school's Covid-19 prevention and control measures.
This comes as many parents are still wary of sending their children to schools due to fears of Covid-19 spread.
According to the Laotian Times, schools in Vientiane Capital province were due to open earlier but the Vientiane Capital Education and Sports Department issued a notice last week that it was being extended due to fears of community spread of Covid-19 in the capital.
Meanwhile, Laos has recorded 152 new cases of Covid-19 on Monday, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 12,621.
Director-General of the Department of Communicable Disease Control Dr Lattanaxay Phetsouvanh said the cases were detected from the 2,427 tests conducted nationwide.
Sixty-five of the cases were community transmissions, with 43 in Savannakhet, 18 in Bokeo, three in Vientiane Capital, and one in Luang Namtha provinces.
The others were imported cases mainly involving migrant workers returning from Thailand in seven provinces.
The country now has 4,305 active cases of Covid-19, and recorded 11 deaths so far since the pandemic started last year.