Nearly 300 schools are conducting limited face-to-face classes in the different regions in the country, a Department of Education (DepEd) official said on Monday.

"For our first batch we have 118 schools, of which 100 are public and 18 are private schools, and today there are an additional 174 schools. So, that is I believe nearly 300 schools nationwide are conducting," Education Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan said during the ''Laging Handa'' virtual public briefing on Monday.

"Nearly 7,000 learners for the first batch and in the subsequent batch. I was not able to get the number of students for the next batch but I think this will be more than the first batch because more schools have participated," he added.

Malaluan said as of DepEd's latest data there is no COVID-19 positive case recorded among the participants of the ongoing limited face-to-face classes.

"In last week's report there is no actual COVID positive case recorded. We have had monitoring and referral there. Some at home have exhibited flu-like symptoms and it is included in our protocol, the health screening. And that is being done not only at home but also in school," he said.

"So far, we have not recorded an actual confirmed positive case of COVID in all of our participating pilot schools and we hope that this will continue in the coming days," he added.

Malaluan also expressed hope that the COVID -19 trend will not change despite the threat of the Omicron variant as the DepEd anticipates an expansion of the limited face to face classes.

"We hope that the trend that we monitor will not change. It’s been very positive and we are anticipating a recommendation towards expansion. But the actual number of how many, assuming that we will expand will still be dependent on the schools being able to meet the criteria for school safety assessment and readiness, and that they are located in areas that are categorized as Alert Levels 1 and 2 early next year," he said. Robina Asido/DMS