December 26, 2020 – Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones confirms that President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has recalled his earlier approval of the pilot implementation/dry run of face-to-face classes in low-risk areas, originally scheduled in January 2021. This is in light of the emerging concern over the reported new strain of the virus that causes COVID-19 or the SARS-CoV-2 VUI 202012/01 (Variant Under Investigation, year 2020, month 12, variant 01).

Pursuant to the President’s instruction, DepEd is suspending the said pilot run of face-to-face classes until further notice.

The Department will fully cooperate with the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) in its response to the current situation.

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