Myanmar to reopen schools from next month

Myanmar on Thursday announced to reopen schools across the country from next month, Xinhua reported.

The announcement was made by Myanmar's Central Committee on Prevention, Control and Treatment for COVID-19.

According to the committee's announcement, all basic education schools including private schools and Buddhist monastic schools will be reopened on November 1, excluding those in 46 townships of nine regions and states based on the analysis on the test positivity rates per 100,000 people in the past 14 days, Xinhua reported.

As part of the anti-pandemic measures, the authorities re-closed all schools across the Asian country since early July.

According to the publication, the Ministry of Health has been administering COVID-19 vaccine doses to middle and high school students aged over 12 years since October 12.

The number of COVID-19 infections has risen to 497,700 after the country reported 799 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, Xinhua reported citing the health ministry's release on Thursday.

To date, the number of recoveries has reached 463,349 and over 4.81 million samples have been tested for COVID-19, while 19 more deaths were newly reported, bringing the death toll to 18,622 so far.

Myanmar detected its first two COVID-19 cases on March 23 last year.

( With inputs from ANI )