Chinese school brings back a thousand-year-old tradition to fight coronavirus!

China decides to go old school! An ancient hat joins masks and sanitisers in the fight against coronavirus. Primary school children donned the hat that was a traditional headgear worn by the Chinese a thousand years ago. 

Children showed up to the school with innovative headgears!

A primary school in Hangzhou in the east of the country took inspiration from the headgear worn by officials in the Song dynasty, which ruled China between 960 AD to 1279 AD, to reinforce lessons on social distancing.

According to the state agency in China, children wore homemade versions of the hat. These hats followed the tradition by having long extensions, or wings, to keep them at least a metre (3ft) apart. 

Beijing shut all its schools again on Wednesday as the city reported 31 new coronavirus cases, with authorities in the Chinese capital rushing to curb an outbreak linked to a wholesale food market.

All schools, which had mostly reopened, were ordered to close again and return to online classes.

"The epidemic situation in the capital is extremely severe," Beijing city spokesman Xu Hejian warned at a press conference Tuesday.

However, he warned that this story came from a much later source, adding: “The Song emperors, in fact, were also depicted to have worn this kind of headwear with wing-like flaps.”

An early childhood education specialist said the hats were a good way to explain the concept of social distancing to young children, who find it difficult to understand abstract concepts.

The World Health Organisation recommends that people stay at least a metre apart to curb the spread of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.