MANILA - The Quezon City government heeded suggestions for an academic break as it announced Friday the class suspension from Kindergarten to Senior High School (K-12).

The suspension will start on Saturday and end the next Saturday, January 22.

In a statement, Mayor Joy Belmonte said the decision is in compliance with Regional Memorandum No. 17 of the Department of Education- National Capital Region (DepEd - NCR).

"Binibigyan konsiderasyon ang mental at physical health ng mga guro at mag-aaral ngayong tumataas ang kaso ng Covid-19 sa National Capital Region (We are giving consideration to the mental and physical health of teachers and students now that the Covid-19 cases continue to increase in the NCR)," Belmonte said.

While on class suspension, the city government asked teachers and students to stay at home as part of precautionary measures to mitigate the spread of Covid-19.

New Covid-19 infections reached 37,207 on Friday, setting another record high number of daily new cases.

The Department of Health said the new cases brought the active infection tally to 265,509 while there were also 9,027 new recoveries, higher than Thursday's 4,694.

The DepEd Memorandum, also issued on Friday, states that classes "shall resume on January 24 to 29 on purely asynchronous distance learning modalities".

The mid-year break scheduled January 31 to February 5 shall be utilized by the learners to comply with backlogs in learning outputs.

Based on the DepEd memorandum, private schools "in consultation with their respective parents' associations, may exercise their own discretion relative to the suspension of classes and K to 12 learning activities when Covid-19 risks in their respective areas are high".

As of Wednesday, the city government also reported a record-breaking number of active Covid-19 cases at 31,479. (PNA)