Skopje, 18 September 2021 (MIA) – The situation in the schools across the country is safe, and so far there’s no internal transmission of the virus in the school buildings, Education Minister Mila Carovska told Alsat TV’s 360 Degrees on Friday. She added that health authorities have also said there’s no increase in the number of infected children in the hospitals as some media had reported. “Epidemiologists together with the Commission for Infectious Diseases closely monitor the situation in schools. The State Sanitary and Health Inspectorate is constantly on the ground and we receive daily reports on the checks carried out in the schools. According to those reports, the protocols are absolutely observed. We’ve had a few cases in some municipalities where certain non-observance of protocols has been reported in a certain school, where immediate intervention has been made,” said Carovska. The Minister stressed that the Education Ministry receives reports on a daily basis on infected students in the schools and maintains regular communication with the Commission for Infectious Diseases, where those reports are submitted in order to take immediate action in case of any change in the situation in schools. “I urge the Ombudsman that we coordinate, and not speculate, so that we can reach quality education with in-person instruction during a pandemic, which is of the highest interest of children as is confirmed not only by our country, but also by international organizations that care about the quality of education in developing countries such as ours,” said Carovska. According to data available to the Ministry of Education and Science, so far since the start of the school year 0.2 percent of a total of 240,000 students have been active cases. Some of them have recovered and returned to classes with in-person learning, while some are still in isolation. On Friday, 0.01 percent of the total number of students were registered as newly diagnosed.