Schools across Indonesia can reopen and conduct face-to-face learning starting in January, but officials in Denpasar say they’re postponing until at least March due to high COVID-19 transmission rate in the city. 

“Based on deliberations from relevant parties, we will postpone face-to-face learning until March 2021,” I Wayan Gunawan, the chief of Denpasar’s Education, Youth and Sports Agency said today. 

Data from the city’s Health Agency show that COVID-19 transmission rate in the city is at 26.3 percent, which they explain as 26 people testing positive for the coronavirus for every 100 people tested. It should be noted here that a lack of testing has been cited as an issue throughout Indonesia’s handling of the pandemic. 

“Imagine if the kids test positive for COVID-19, they have to go into isolation or be treated in the hospital without [their parents], how it will affect their mental health. So we are prioritizing the children’s health,” Gunawan said. 

In neighboring Badung regency, as many as 70 teachers have been diagnosed with COVID-19 out of a total of 2,559 who underwent testing in the past two weeks. Officials say the positivity rate among teachers remains low — at 2.57 percent — based on those numbers, adding that the teachers may have been infected by their household members as they have been working from home. In addition, teachers who tested positive were placed in isolation at a quarantine facility.

Source: coconuts.co