School testing deescalated, minister wants more principals’ free days

From Monday tests for Covid-19 will be conducted at Czech schools once a week, down from the twice weekly regime introduced after the Christmas holidays. Pupils and students who are positive in antigen tests must then undergo PCR tests.

In view of the intensifying coronavirus epidemic, the minister of education, Petr Gazdík, is to propose at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that school principals be given more discretionary free days. The minister would like them to be allowed to shut their schools 15 days a year, instead of the present five, saying this would give them more flexibility to respond to Covid developments.