Bsharri will delay the reopening of schools in the town due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Credit: Marc Fayad)
BEIRUT – The Bsharri municipality in northern Lebanon on Saturday announced it was pushing back to Jan. 17 the reopening of schools in the mountain town due to the COVID-19 pandemic, days after Lebanon’s education minister called for educational institutions to open their doors this coming monday.
Here’s what we know:
• Bsharri municipal chief Faraday Keyrouz issued an administrative decision for schools to reopen Jan. 17 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the town’s educational institutions, the NNA reported.
• On Wednesday, Education Minister Abbas Halabi and Health Minister Firass Abiad held a joint press conference to announce schools would reopen after the holiday season for in-person classes on Monday, Jan. 10, with strict countermeasures in place.
• Halabi vowed in the press briefing that “there will be a safe return to schools, and the spread of the [COVID-19] virus came during the holiday,” implicitly saying that he believed in-person classes were not responsible for the recent surge in COVID-19 cases.