Bangladesh reopens schools after 18-month COVID shutdown

Schools reopened after 543 days of closure as country’s virus situation eases and more people are vaccinated.

Dhaka, Bangladesh – For the first time in 18 months, Adnan Hasan finds himself wearing his school uniform – a crisp white shirt and blue pants – and standing in a queue. The fifth-grader, wearing a mask, waited before the arched gate of capital Dhaka’s Udayan School on Sunday, as hundreds of thousands of children in Bangladesh returned to their classrooms after 543 days – one of the world’s longest coronavirus shutdowns. As children waited to enter Udayan School, two workers stood at the gate, dispensing hand sanitiser to those entering, while the other checked their temperatures with a thermometer.