The government plans to reopen schools for classes VIII and below in the country by mid-April. The Prime Minister announced this in his address to the nation yesterday evening. The Prime Minister added that it is safe to reopen schools by mid-April as children in these age groups will be fully vaccinated by then. The children aged five to 11 years will receive their COVID vaccine beginning March 10. Meanwhile, the education ministry is working to finalise the dates for schools to reopen which will be announced soon. However, for classes IX and above, the ministry has set mid-March for now.
“The vaccine will be here by 28th February. We need to distribute it to 205 gewogs and 20 dzongkhags. Starting March 10, children aged between 5 to 11 will be vaccinated in five days period. And after three or four weeks, the second dose will be given which will be in the first week of April. After one week of the second dose, we see it as safe to open schools also. So, we are discussing this with the education ministry. Initially, the school was to reopen on 1st of March, but we have postponed the date and we are planning to reopen in April,” said Dr Lotay Tshering, the Prime Minister.
