Myanmar to close schools for 1 more week

Myanmar's Central Committee on Prevention, Control and Treatment for COVID-19 on Saturday announced further extension of the closure of schools nationwide until the end of October, reported Xinhua.

The move was made in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 and to make preparations for reopening schools, the committee said.

The Ministry of Health has been administering COVID-19 vaccine doses to middle and high school students aged over 12 years since Oct. 12.

As part of the anti-pandemic measures, the authorities re-closed all schools across the Asian country since early July.

According to a health ministry release on Saturday, Myanmar recorded 1,067 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 20 more deaths in the past 24 hours.

The total number of COVID-19 infections has risen to 493,576 with 18,511 deaths in the country.

Myanmar detected its first two COVID-19 cases on March 23 last year.