WHO recommends Covid tests in schools to avoid closures

"The summer months offer a valuable window of opportunity for governments to put in place the right set of measures that will help keep infection rates down and avoid resorting to school closures," Hans Kluge, WHO's regional director for Europe, said in a statement issued together with UNICEF and UNESCO.

He added that closing schools "as we have seen, have such a harmful effect on the education, social and mental well-being of our children and youth."

"We can't allow the pandemic to rob children of their education and development," said Kluge, who has repeatedly called for countries in the WHO's European Region to address dropout rates and health effects linked to distance learning.