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Cambodia reopens schools after COVID-19 shutdown in March

Cambodia reopens schools after COVID-19 shutdown in March

Students sanitise hands before their morning class at Santhormok high school, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov 2, 2020. (Photo: AP/Heng Sinith)

PHNOM PENH: Schools throughout Cambodia reopened Monday (Nov 2) for the first time since March but with class sizes and hours limited by COVID-19 precautions.

Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron said a second closing would be considered if any students became infected while attending classes. He said students and teachers would have to learn to work with vigilance and safety measures because COVID-19 was still raging in Europe and the United States and no vaccine for it has yet been developed.

READ: Land to lose: Coronavirus compounds debt crisis in Cambodia

A student has his temperature checked in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday, Cambodia, Nov 2, 2020. (Photo: AP/Heng Sinith) A school boy, left, has his temperature checked before he enters a school of Santhormok, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. Schools throughout Cambodia on Monday opened onward, months after closures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

A trial phase of reopenings for some schools in the capital Phnom Penh and parts of eastern Cambodia started last month, and Hang Chuon Naron said the good results prompted the approval for reopenings nationwide.

“As the government has controlled the COVID situation very well, we have seen that in Cambodia the number of cases has not increased, and especially the border control is every effective,” he told reporters at a school in Phnom Penh.

In addition to the limits on class sizes and hours, school buses, libraries, physical education and art activities and canteens will resume under the Health Ministry's rules covering coronavirus safety.

READ: Cambodian farmers deploy scarecrows to ward off COVID-19

Cambodian Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron greets students during his visit to a school in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov 2, 2020. (Photo: AP/Heng Sinith)

“So, we have two objectives - number one is safety for our students, our teachers, as well as the community, and number two is to continue education for everyone,” he said.

Cambodia has reported 292 cases of coronavirus infection, with no deaths. The Health Ministry on Monday reported one new case, a Cambodian returning from abroad.

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Source: AP/zl

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