TEHRAN – The National headquarters for Coronavirus Control has announced that kindergartens in high-risk red-zone cities will be closed for a week, due to a surge in Omicron cases.

"It was approved today at the Headquarters for Coronavirus Control meeting that those kindergartens in the red cities will be closed for a week, and due to this closure, the organizations will provide telework for mothers with children aged 6 years or younger for a week," Abbas Shiravjan, a spokesman for the National headquarters for Coronavirus Control, twitted on Saturday.

The highest category on Iran’s coronavirus risk scale is the red zone (highly infected cities), which reaches lower risk areas by orange, yellow, and blue zones.

With the spread of Omicron across the country, the number of red cities has risen from 120 to 247, and no cities are currently blue.

According to the latest announcement, 112 cities are at medium risk of the virus transmission being in the orange zone and 89 cities are in the low-risk yellow zone.

Based on the Ministry of Health announcement, 15 percent of the population have not yet referred to vaccination centers for inoculation, which will also endanger the health of other members of the community.

Iranian Health Minister Bahram Einollahi has urged more caution against the disease, saying that getting booster vaccinations could play a major role in preventing a fresh surge in the number of deaths and infections from the virus.

However, the cheapest, safest, and most accessible way to prevent virus transmission and infection is to follow health protocols.

All educational centers in Iran have been closed since February 2020.

In order for students to keep in touch with their studies, the Ministry of Education launched a homegrown mobile application on April 9, called SHAD, providing students with distance learning programs. More than 60 percent of students and 94 percent of teachers attended 64 percent of classes through the SHAD app, whose acronym in Persian translates as the Students Education Network.

Moreover, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) also began to broadcast televised educational programs on a daily basis after school closures.

Due to the vaccination and the reduction of transmission, schools are gradually reopened since September 2021, and about 15 million students across the country attended schools with strict observance of health protocols. However, the fifth and sixth waves of the pandemic prevented the students to enjoy face-to-face education.

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