School begins for Xinjiang students in final year

Monday marks the first day of offline schooling of the new semester for some 510,000 students in their final year of senior, junior high schools and vocational schools in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Official data showed that no new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have been reported for over 20 consecutive days in the region, prompting an early school reopening compared with other provincial regions across the country.

Free masks were handed out to students, whose temperatures were taken before entering campus. The regional education department also limited the number of students in a classroom to no more than 30. Meals are also served individually.

In the meantime, other students will continue to take online classes at home until further notice, the department said.