COVID-19:Millions Of Students Return To School Across Europe,Other Parts Of The World

    

Millions of mask-wearing European children resumed  school on Tuesday with governments committed to get pupils back in class despite still-rising coronavirus infections which surged over four million across the continent for the first time.

Schools reopened in Russia, Ukraine, Belgium and France, where teachers and children aged 11 and older were mandated to wear face coverings, echoing regulations put in place across the continent.

Lockdowns imposed from March forced many children to miss months of education, as well as time with their friends.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time!” 12-year-old Chahda told AFP excitedly as she got with her friend at school in the southern French city of Marseille.

However, the largest school district in the United States — New York City — indicated a delay to in-person classes at public institutions until September 21, after stiking a deal with a prominent teachers’ union that had threatened a strike over unaddressed health concerns.

In Europe, the decision to forge ahead with school reopenings comes at a time when the virus is spreading rapidly again in many countries, raising fears that more lockdowns and disruption are to come in autumn and winter.

       

“I am convinced that we can and will prevent a second general shutdown,” Germany’s Economy Minister Peter Altmaier stated, unveiling figures to suggest his country has crossed the worst of its recession.

An AFP tally of infections, using official data from across Europe, indicated that more than four million people have contracted the disease, with Russia accounting for almost a quarter of cases.

The virus erupted late last year in China and has now infected more than 25 million people globally and caused almost 850,000 deaths.

The Chinese city at the centre of the initial outbreak, Wuhan, took another leap back to normality on Tuesday when its almost 1.4 million youngsters also went back to schools and kindergartens.

State media exhibited images of thousands of students hoisting the Chinese flag — a daily practice at all public schools — despite warnings to avoid mass gatherings.