The Department of Education announced Friday suspension of classes in all public schools in the National Capital Region (NCR) starting tomorrow, January 15 until January 22 due to rising COVID-19 cases.

Classes will resume on January 24 to January 29 on purely asynchronous distance learning modalities, DepEd NCR said.

The break is expected ''to ease the health burden caused by the surge of COVID-19 cases to the physical and mental well-being of school personnel and learners,'' DepEd NCR said.

A midyear break set on January 31 to February 5 shall be used by students to finish backlogs. Teachers are expected to attend to activities like on-service training and other learning related tasks.

The second quarter examinations will be held on February 2.

Students are expected to submit learning outputs between February 7 to 12 using online platforms and other mechanisms.

Lost contact days shall be compensated by independent study, remediation, enhancement activities and other teacher-related learning interactions. DMS