ATHENS – With Greece's students back to school as the COVID-19 pandemic is still lingering but showing signs of declining, kindergartens and nurseries for pre-schools are set to open again on May 17.

It took months for students to finally be able to return to class after being taught online with remote classes and the conditions for in-school lessons are supposed to include wearing masks and social distancing, not practiced by all students.

Unlike the other students, kindergarten children will not have to take a self-test for the Coronavirus once weekly nor wear masks, deemed too difficult for those around 3 years old or younger.

Kindergarten teachers will be given priority for the accelerating vaccination campaign to protect them to be near youngsters, said Deputy Minister for Labor and Social Affairs Domna Michailidou.

There were worries from the government's advisory panel of doctors and scientists that letting students go back to classrooms could bring a surge in COVID-19 cases but that hasn't happened in large part.