Austria to re-open schools in May

Austria said Friday it would start to re-open classes at schools from May 4 as it continues a gradual loosening of coronavirus lockdown measures.

Some 100,000 final-year students will go back to school on May 4, Education Minister Heinz Fassmann told a press conference.

Schools for six- to 14-year-olds will re-open May 15, while classes for other students aged 15 and over will follow from May 29, provided infections don’t surge again, Fassmann said.

He added classes would be split into two groups, with teachers taking only one group on a given day to ensure that numbers are kept to around 11 students per classroom so a safe distance can be kept between them.

The group not being taught at any one time will be able to work on assignments in other rooms or at home.

Students will also have to wear masks inside schools except for when they are seated at their desks inside classrooms.

Music and gym lessons will however not resume and the curriculum will focus on core subjects.

Austria this month began easing the lockdown measures imposed in March and which have so far succeeded in slowing the spread of the new coronavirus.

Small shops and gardening and hardware stores started to re-open in mid-April. Larger shops will follow next week. Restaurants are expected to re-open from mid-May.

The country of almost nine million people has been spared the brunt of the crisis so far with some 15,000 reported infections and 530 deaths. (AFP)