A TOTAL of 177 schools in Central Visayas reopened after the implementation of Alert Level 1 in several provinces in the country, including the National Capital Region.

The Inter-Agency Task Force downgraded the alert status of Metro Manila and 38 other provinces on March 1.

Dr. Salustino Jimenez, director of the Department of Education in Region 7, said that 484 schools were allowed to reopen and 177 of those are already conducting limited face-to-face classes.

“We are going in that direction (of returning to face-to-face classes). A total of 474 schools will be doing the limited face-to-face classes plus the 10 from the pilot implementation. So that brings our total to 484 schools,” Jimenez, DepEd-7 director, said.

“And we’re still counting because as of this moment, we’re still validating their applications, and the release of the Safety Seals are already ongoing,” he added.