More than 1,100 primary school children will return to Vilnius schools next week and other cities are preparing for this.

According to Alina Kovalevskaja, Vilnius Municipality Senior Education Advisor, the first coronavirus tests are being carried out this week on a cumulative basis for students, their families, and the school community with their families.

Vyturys Primary School and Baltupiai Progymnasium plan to renew contact education on Monday, J. Basanavičius Progymnasium will open its doors for primary school children on Tuesday.

“Practically 80 to 90 percent are coming back. For example, in Baltupiai progymnasium all classes return, in J. Basanavičius progymnasium, 17 out of 20, and in Vyturys, 16 out of 17. In total, about 1,140 students return through three schools, ”said A. Kovalevskaja.

The government has allowed the Municipality of Vilnius to choose schools in which, through the application of cumulative tests, it would be possible to renew primary contact education, and for three weeks this pilot project is carried out in the only institution in Lithuania: Vilnius Duke Gediminas Progymnasium.

According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, some 60 more institutions from 25 other municipalities in the country have also expressed their desire to join the initiative. It is being considered that some of them could also open next week.

According to the representatives of the ministry, the decision of the Minister of Health, Chief of Operations Arūnas Dulkis, is expected for this Friday, which explains in detail the procedures to be followed by the institutions that renew contact education.

According to the ministry, whether students return to classes next week in at least some of these schools will depend on the ability of municipal administrations to organize tests and test samples, since not all municipalities have them.

At that time, according to A. Kovalevskaya, so far the results in Vilnius are gratifying, because so far no coronavirus infection has been detected during the educational process. The last tests at Gediminas Progymnasium take place on Friday.

Vilnius Municipality is also conducting a survey of primary school students and promises to evaluate the possibility of opening more institutions, as the tests require the use of specialists from the Vilnius Public Health Office with experience working at checkpoints. mobiles.

“But we know that most schools already want to get back in touch with education,” he said.

The cumulative method is applied to several samples from a group of individuals at the same time. If the test is positive, each person is retested individually by PCR. If a family member is diagnosed with COVID-19, the child must be isolated for two weeks at home and continue their education remotely.

The first tests are done in all the families or homes of the students and school staff, then every 4-7 days, the tests are done only in the students and staff.