Vietnam students attend virtual classes amid virus

About 23 million Vietnamese students started a new school year on Monday, most of them in virtual classrooms due to a lockdown in place to try to control coronavirus cases.

Since April, when the latest wave of the virus first spread in the country, Vietnam has closed down schools and education institutions in hotspot areas and moved learning activities to online platforms.

In Ho Chi Minh, the epicenter of Vietnam's worst virus outbreak, teachers and students observed a minute of silence to pay tribute to those who died of COVID-19 and honour front-liners before opening their Monday classes.  As of Monday, Vietnam has reported more than 520,000 cases with over 13,000 deaths.