Education Minister: schools in Estonia need contact learning - Baltic News Network - News from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia bnn-news.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bnn-news.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The infection rate - known as R - has fallen further to 0.85, Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) said on Thursday. Last Friday, the rate was 0.9 which means Estonia s downward trend is continuing. The positive thing is that people have really stuck to these restrictions, reduced contact with each other, worn masks, and as a result, the infection rate has dropped to 0.85, she said at the government s press conference.
An infection rate below 1 means the infection rate is no longer rising.
The latest round of restrictions, which moved children to distance learning and closed cafes and restaurants, came into effect exactly three weeks ago on March 11.
Several schools in Pärnu County have made the switch to remote learning following coronavirus outbreaks among both pupils and staff. The region s Health Board (Terviseamet) director said that the return to school could, with hindsight, have been put back a week, amid rising COVID-19 rates in the county.
Sütevaka High School of Humanities in Pärnu city switched to distance learning from Monday, while Sauga School, just outside the town, is to do the same from Tuesday. These join two schools who had already made the move to remote learning last week, with a kindergarten and primary school in Pärnu County also going to distance learning this week.
The Health Boards s head of communications Simmo Saar has been asked to leave his position after he anonymously criticized the state s coronavirus vaccination plan but was later identified, daily newspaper Postimees reported on Tuesday.
Saar told Postimees (link in English): It is certainly not my intention here to unjustifiably criticize the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Health Board or the Government of the Republic. Actually, I m worried. I am worried as a citizen, as a father, as a partner. When I look at how vaccination against the coronavirus is planned in Estonia, I find that it has been done too late, and when it is said today that there is a great plan, I will honestly say that it is not a plan. It is, at best, the starting point for a vaccination strategy.