Mayor of Tallinn Mihhail Kõlvart (Center) said that at the meeting with the school leaders, the current situation in schools was analyzed and the organization of schooling in the future discussed.

"After the autumn break, we have implemented, in two-week cycles and assessing the situation,  preventive measures to limit coronavirus outbreaks and the spread of the infection in educational institutions. We first implemented a joint approach whereby all grades from 4 to 8 were in distance learning, and then continued with partial e-schooling, with schools deciding which class or classes to put on distance learning as the situation requires," Kõlvart said.

The mayor noted that the infection rates in schools have declined and the number of school outbreaks has also fallen, which shows that the preventive measures so far have justified themselves. Thus, based on the joint discussion and feedback from school leaders, the conclusion was reached that from next week, general education schools will be able to resume  contact learning, while deciding, on a school-by-school basis, how to organize dispersion and schooling if infection occurs.

According to the Health Board, there were 48 coronavirus outbreaks in Tallinn schools at the end of October. The number of outbreaks climbed to 53 by November 2 and to 61 by November 8. By November 16, the number of outbreaks declined to 52, and as on November 22 the number was down at 42, which involved 594 infection cases, including 496 infected students and 98 school staff.

Where previously school outbreaks mainly affected grades 1-4 and 5-9, now the biggest increase has occurred in infections in grades 1-4.

Among the 79 municipalities of Estonia, Tallinn ranks 61st in terms of the number of infected people with 286 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last seven days. The average for Estonia as a whole was 380 cases.

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