Babiš: students cannot return to school at start of March

Students will not be able to return to the classroom at the beginning of March as hoped, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday morning. He did not speculate when schools may reopen but said anti-coronavirus measures first must be tightened.

The government had set a goal of having secondary school students in their final years, due to graduate and take final exams this spring, return to the classroom on March 1, with others to follow in later weeks.

Mr Babiš said that the draft Pandemic Law, now being deliberated in the Senate, must enter into effect before schools can reopen under strict conditions, including regular mandatory antigen testing for students and teachers.

Currently, only kindergartens and special schools are open, along with the first and second grades of primary schools. Minister of Education Robert Plaga said the government also talked about the possibility of them as a last resort.