Turkey wants to reopen all schools on August 31 if coronavirus cases keep receding – report

Turkey plans to reopen schools nationwide on August 31 to free up students’ working parents, assuming a recent stabilization in coronavirus cases holds. The daily infection rate may need to dip below the more than 900 seen recently to allow Ankara to execute its Plan A, government sources told Reuters.

Schools shifted to distance education in March, when Turkey identified its first case and began restricting movement. Much of the economy reopened on June 1, after the school year ended, but masks and other hygiene measures are still required in public.

“If the number of cases decreases, all schools will be opened,” one government source said, adding that otherwise schools in high-infection areas might remain closed.