Online classes could be an option for the capital's over two million students from kindergarten to high school levels, Chu Ngoc Anh, chairman of the city People's Committee, said at a Monday meeting.

He also requested the city's Department of Education and Training to let universities and colleges follow suit.

Following the decision, Hanoi has become one of 13 localities to let students stay home after the Tet break amid rising coronavirus cases, others being An Giang, Ben Tre, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Binh Thuan, Can Tho, Dien Bien, Ha Nam, Hai Duong, Hai Phong, HCMC and Thanh Hoa.

Schools had been scheduled to resume on Feb. 17.

Last year, Covid-19 also forced schools across the country to close for three months after Tet.

On Monday, the capital recorded two new coronavirus-positive cases associated with a deceased Japanese man in the Somerset West Point hotel in Tay Ho District, who was found dead before being confirmed a Covid-19 patient Monday morning. The two people are a 24-year-old woman in Ba Dinh District and a 43-year-old Japanese man in the same Tay Ho hotel, both colleagues of the deceased man at trading firm Mitsui Vietnam.

The two have been in close contact with the deceased man at a meeting on Feb. 2, according to the Hanoi Center for Disease Control (CDC). They have not been tagged as Covid-19 patients by the Health Ministry.

Hanoi has recorded 33 Covid-19 patients since late last month out of the nation's 638 community cases.