Students will start returning to schools across South Korea next week, as the number of COVID-19 cases in the country steadily declines.
South Korean Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae announced Monday that high school seniors will return to classrooms on May 13, followed by students in lower grades in phased steps from May 20. The plan is for all schools to be fully reopened by June 1, she said.
Some 5.4 million students in South Korea have been taking classes online since April 9 due to the pandemic, according to Yoo.
South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun announced Sunday that the country will relax its strict social-distancing measures starting May 6, which were put in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The nation’s number of new COVID-19 cases has remained low. South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported just eight additional cases of the disease on Monday morning, all of which were imported from overseas. Out of 10,801 people in the country who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 so far, 9,217 have recovered and 252 have died.
