Of the approximately 3,500 school establishments on the continent, almost 800 are classified as “reference schools for the provision of meals and care for children of hospital and emergency personnel”, according to data from the Directorate-General for School Establishments (DGEstE).

This means that these 800 schools will be the exception to the decision to close all educational establishments from day care centres to universities and polytechnics, one of the measures advanced by the Government at the end of last week to try to control the spread of the new coronavirus.

In a country in a state of alert, distance learning takes place and around two million students stay at home. Only the children of health professionals and security forces may have to continue to go to school, so that parents can go to work.

In an accounting done by Lusa, the northern region will have the most open educational establishments, almost 300 schools.

The list available on the DGEstE website shows that in the Algarve there are 232 “reference schools” and in the Lisbon and Vale do Tejo area there are 194. In the centre, 91 establishments are currently open and in the Alentejo there are 62.

Then there are different forms of organization. In the Alcácer do Sal Schools grouping, for example, students from the 1st to the 9th grade who need to will stay at the Basic School Pedro Nunes, while the youngest stay in the Kindergarten of Alcácer do Sal.

The decision to join the children in a school so that health professionals - who are more in contact with Covid-19 patients - and security could continue to work was criticized by the Order of Doctors and unions, who warned of the danger in which the children and families would be.

However, schools will also be open to ensure that the most disadvantaged children do not lose their right to meals due to the emergency situation in the country.

Some municipalities have explained how they will ensure that meals reach students with school social support. In the case of Lisbon, for example, the municipality announced that parents with children in kindergarten and 1st cycle would have to fetch meals from school. In Golegã, the municipality committed itself to deliver door-to-door to all students in grade A.

The new coronavirus responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic was detected in December in China, and has already caused more than 6,400 deaths worldwide.

In Portugal, the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) raised the number of confirmed infection cases to 245 on Sunday, 76 more than on Saturday.

Among the identified cases, 149 are hospitalized, of which 18 are in intensive care units, and two people are recovered.

The decision to suspend all classroom activities starting Monday, 16 March, will be reassessed on April 9th.