Huittinen closes all schools till March 29 to contain coronavirus

The Huittinen municipality authority on Sunday decided to close all educational institutes from Monday for next two weeks as a move to contain the outbreak of coronavirus.

All primary, upper comprehensive and upper secondary schools in the municipality will remain closed initially till March 29 following the coronavirus situation, said an official press release.

Huittinen, a municipality in western Finland of about 10,000 residents became the first municipality in the country to close the academic institutions.

The educational institutes will provide distance education and students will participate in the study at home.

Although the authority announced initially closure for two weeks, it is ready to continue for a longer period, if necessary, reported National broadcaster Yle quoting officials of the municipality.

The measure will not affect early years education programmes or pre-school groups, which will continue to operate normally, the Yle report added.