Briones says in-person classes should continue amid COVID-19 pandemic

Published December 28, 2021 11:11 AM By LLANESCA T. PANTI,GMA News

Education Secretary Leonor Briones on Tuesday said face-to-face classes amid the pandemic should continue since there has been no COVID-19 case recorded during its pilot implementation.

"Wala kahit isang COVID-19 incident2, walang kahit anong serious incident [There's been neither a single COVID-19 incident nor a serious incident]," Briones reported during President Rodrigo Duterte's Talk to the People aired Tuesday.

"We thank you for allowing us to resume face-to-face classes, and we believe we can proceed as we continue the assessment of our schools," Briones told the President.

DepEd Assistant Secretary Malcolm Garma earlier said the same thing during the Senate hearing

, saying that learners who showed flu-like symptoms such as cough, fever, cold did not attend classes anymore since their parents decided to keep them at home.

With the ongoing pilot face-to-face classes, only Kindergarten to Grade 3 as well as Senior High School students in 272 public schools and 18 private schools are participating.

The DepEd earlier expressed optimism that the conduct of face-to-face classes will move to its “expansion phase” by January 2022.

The Philippines has recorded four cases of the more transmissible Omicron coronavirus variant so far, although this new variant, first detected by South African authorities, has yet to show it could cause severe infection. —KBK, GMA News

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