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BEIJING: Students wearing masks returned to class on Tuesday (September 1) in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where COVID-19 first emerged last year, when the city opened schools and kindergartens for the first time in seven months.
Almost 1.4 million students resumed classes in around 2,800 kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools across the city, following the reopening of secondary schools in May.
State media released images of thousands of students raising the Chinese flag, a daily routine in all public schools, despite warnings to avoid mass gatherings.
Students at the 100th anniversary of the founding of Wuhan High School on the first day of the new semester in the central Chinese province city of Hubei AFP / STR
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Schools have drawn up plans to return to online teaching in case new outbreaks emerge, city officials said last week.
Students were advised to wear masks to and from school and to avoid public buses or trains if possible.
Primary students arrive on the first day of the new semester in Wuhan AFP / STR
Primary school students attend a class on the first day of the new semester in Wuhan AFP / STR
Schools were also ordered to hold drills and training sessions to help prepare for new outbreaks.
Official figures show that Wuhan accounted for 80 percent of the more than 4,600 coronavirus-related deaths in China and was under a strict lockdown for more than two months since the end of January.
The city also conducted a massive testing campaign targeting 11 million residents in May.
China has now largely controlled the spread of the virus, and schools across the country, which were closed at the end of January, have gradually reopened.
Shanghai reopened schools in May, and the capital city Beijing, which recently suffered a local outbreak of the virus, said it will resume all schools, including kindergartens, in September.
Beijing authorities require that teachers and students wear face masks on campus.
China has reported no new local transmissions of the coronavirus in recent days.
READ: China reports 17 new COVID-19 cases, all imported
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