President Rodrigo Duterte announced that he cancels his approval on DepEd’s proposal to conduct face-to-face classes starting next year due to the threat of the new COVID-19 strain believed to be more infectious.

“I have allowed kasi the face-to-face classes as a pilot project all over the country. With the new strain, true or not, maybe its true because it’s being validated by Germany, South Africa, UK eh iyong order ko noon kay Briones, I’m calling back the order,” Duterte said in a meeting with Cabinet officials and infectious disease experts.

“I will not allow face-to-face classes for children until we are through with this,” he added.

The dry run implementation was planned to be conducted in areas with low-risk to COVID-19 from Jan. 11 to 23.

Classes officially started on Oct. 5 using distance learning modality— a combination of online and modular learning—as face-to-face classes remain suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.