Mexico to reopen classrooms in capital as pandemic eases

MEXICO CITY — Schoolchildren will return to classrooms in the Mexican capital next month, authorities said Wednesday, in the latest easing of pandemic restrictions following a steady decline in new coronavirus cases.

Face-to-face classes have been suspended since March 2020 across most of Mexico, which has one of the highest Covid-19 death tolls in the world.

Mexico City’s 1.5 million schoolchildren will return to classrooms from June 7 on a voluntary basis, said Luis Humberto Fernandez, an educational authority official in the capital.

The move “will be a very important factor in reducing school dropouts,” he said.

By the end of this week, all teaching staff will have been offered vaccination against the coronavirus, he said.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said that “no one will be forced” to return to the classroom and sanitary measures such as the use of masks and disinfectant gel would be respected.

In the event of any coronavirus outbreak a school will be closed for 15 days.

Millions of Mexican children have been undergoing distance learning via television since August last year, posing a challenge for disadvantaged families with no TV or internet.

Mexico’s official Covid-19 death toll of more than 220,000 is the fourth highest in the world, and the actual figure is believed to be significantly worse.

But new cases and fatalities have steadily declined since a surge in January that the authorities blamed on social gatherings around the New Year.

The country of 126 million has administered 24 million coronavirus vaccine doses.

This month Mexico City moved to yellow status, the second lowest of four under the country’s traffic-light system, leading to a further easing of pandemic lockdown measures.