Students attend a class at a primary school in Yaounde, Cameroon, on Oct. 5, 2020. (Photo: Xinhua)

 

Students attend a class at a high school in Yaounde, Cameroon, on Oct. 5, 2020.(Photo: Xinhua)

 
Cameroon's primary and secondary schools reopened on Monday amid continued and strict anti-COVID-19 measures.

"Since last year, we have taken anti-COVID-19 measures that were effective in schools. We have reinforced these measures. We have imported more anti-COVID-19 material including face masks and despatched (them) to all regions of the country," Minister of Basic Education, Laurent Serge Etoundi Ngoa told reporters in the capital, Yaounde, at the start of the new school year.

"We are asking parents to get vaccinated. Though vaccination is not obligatory, teachers and school administrative personnel also need to be vaccinated in order to protect school children and to reduce the transmission rate," Ngoa added.

He said, the government will intensify sensitization campaign against COVID-19 in schools.

Close to two million pupils and students effectively returned to school on the first day of school in the Central African nation, according to education officials.