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The Minister of Education, Sorin Cimpeanu, stated, on Thursday evening, at private broadcaster Digi24, that classes "under no form" will they have physical presence required where the vaccination rate is lower than 60 pct.
"There is only one exception that we propose for acceptance in the joint Minister's Order, one that was there before, where there are children with special educational needs," the Education Ministry added.
According to him, 54 pct of schools and kindergartens in Romania, state and private, have a vaccination rate of at least 60 pct among staff.
"The rest have a vaccination rate or had at the level of Friday [e.n. - last week] - there are possibly small updates in the past few days - of over 60 pct. I saw units with vaccination rates of 12 pct, of 27 pct. They're in equal measure privates and public. I saw health high schools with 36 pct vaccination rate - hard to understand," said Cimpeanu.
"This idea is forming, of the 60 pct threshold, but everything that I will say this evening I say under reserve of validation by the CNSU [National Committee for Emergency Situations] tomorrow morning [e.n. - Friday morning], so that we can sign the joint Education - Healthcare Minister Order tomorrow in the first part of the day, so that in the second part all schools in Romania to be able to organize administration councils in order to update, if it's the case, the vaccination rate that all schools in Romania already have displayed on the website," said the Education Minister.
Sorin Cimpeanu also said that there is the possibility that "after a certain" period of time this threshold of 60 pct be removed.
"The objective is 70 pct, it's an objective given by the WHO," he added.
Cimpeanu recalled that the infection rate in the locality is no longer taken into consideration.
President Klaus Iohannis announced, on Thursday, that the school holiday will not be extended and that pupils will return physically to schools, where the pandemic and health conditions allow for it, but mentioned that a condition was introduced so that schools can function normally, namely the vaccination rate of the school's staff.
