Almost all Italy's pupils finally back in school

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 1 - Pupils, including high-school students, in almost all of Italy's regions were finally able to return to class on Monday.
    Italy's high schools had been meant to reopen after the Christmas holidays, after distance learning was used in the last part of 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions.
    But only a handful of regions actually reopened their high schools as scheduled on January 11, due to concerns about fuelling COVID contagion, with the other regions imposing delays of varying lengths.
    On Monday around eight million pupils were in school after Sardinia, Calabria, Puglia, Basilicata, Veneto, Campania and Friuli Venezia Giulia reopened their high schools.
    That eight million includes around 2.5 million high-school students, who are physically attending class for 50-75% of their timetables, with the rest being done via distance learning.
    High-school pupils in Sicily, however, will not go back to class for another week.
    Education Minister Lucia Azzolina, who pressed hard for the nation's schools to reopen at all levels, said fears that having older pupils back in class would cause an upswing in contagion have proven unfounded.
    "The high-school kids are completing their return to school," Azzolina said.
    "The lower levels of the school system stayed open and around five million male and female students never had to stay away from their classrooms.
    "High schools, on the other hand, resumed classed with students physically present gradually.
    "Contagion remained stable in the areas that opened first.
    "This is something that comforts us, but we must keep our level of attention very, very high". (ANSA).