Male: The National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC), on Thursday, announced that schools and universities would reopen within the month of July.

Speaking at a press conference held at NEOC, Assistant Director at the Ministry of Health Aiminath Shaina Abdulla stated that educational facilities were being given clearance to open after recommendations from the Health Protection Agency (HPA). However, she did not specify the exact date that education would resume.

The Ministry of Education has informed schools across the country to make preparations to teach students in the new normal.

Education Ministry's instructions to schools
- Staff are required to be present 15 minutes before students arrive

- The temperature of all students and staff must be checked at the gate. Relevant authorities must be contacted for recommendations concerning bodily temperatures that exceed 37 degrees Celcius

- Arrangements must be in place for students to wash their hands

- Staff and students must wear facemasks. Children below the age of two and students with breathing difficulties are not required to use masks.

- Maintain a three-foot distance between seats

The closure of schools, universities and training facilities was one of the first measures implemented by the government after declaring a state of public health emergency on March 12.

Till date, education institutions across the country have remained closed for more than three months.

Amid the local COVID-19 outbreak, the Ministry of Education indefinitely delayed the GCE O' Level, IGCSE and SSC exams while A' Level examinations, initially scheduled for June, were postponed to October and November.

The lockdown on the capital city of Male' was initially implemented on April 15 and extended several times. President Ibrahim Mohammed Solih announced that lockdown measures would be gradually eased following May 28.

As one of the most densely populated cities in the world, Maldives' capital Malé recorded a significant increase in COVID-19 cases in the first weeks following the first confirmed local transmission on April 15. However, the number of recoveries recorded daily are now consistently higher than newly confirmed cases.

Maldives presently records a total of 1,977 confirmed cases, out of which 814 are active cases of COVID-19. The country records 1,153 recoveries and eight deaths.

WHO has classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The new strain of novel coronavirus has infected over 7.6 million people and claimed over 424,300 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, 3.8 million people have recovered.

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