Some Indonesian students return to schools, at a distance

School bells in some parts of Indonesia’s capital have rung for the first time in more than a year as some school were allowed to reopen now that the number of new coronavirus infections is on the decline

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- School bells in some parts of Indonesia’s capital have rung again after classes closed by the coronavirus for more than a year were allowed to start reopening on Monday now that the daily count of new COVID-19 cases continues to decline. A total of 610 schools that have passed the required tests by the Jakarta Education Agency reopened their doors for the first time since the pandemic started, though with many precautions still in place. The city administration had initially planned to reopen schools in June, but the plan was postponed as another wave of infections triggered by the highly contagious delta variant engulfed the country. “We had been past the peak of the second wave of COVID-19 infections,” Jakarta Vice Governor Ahmad Riza Patria told reporters on Monday, adding that they hope to reopen all schools in January.