Poland extends school closure by additional month

The Polish government announced on Friday that schools will remain closed until at least May 24 due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

Dariusz Piontkowski, the Minister of National Education said during a press conference that current epidemic conditions do not allow schools, kindergartens and nurseries to resume their activities, hence the government decided to further reduce the activities of these institutions.

"This time we are moving the limitation to a much longer date, until May 24," he added.

Apart from that, primary school orientation exams and high-school graduation exams, normally scheduled for May, have been moved to the month of June and will be fully written, with oral parts scrapped.

Originally, schools were scheduled to reopen the coming week, but with the epidemic not allaying in the country, there was little doubt the Polish government would opt for an extension. According to the latest data of the Ministry of Health, the total number of confirmed coronavirus infections has risen to 10,759 as of Friday, with 463 deaths.