Brasilia, Aug 20 (IANS): Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has enacted a law to exempt schools from having to meet a minimum number of school days amid the Covid-19 pandemic, making the academic year more flexible.

The new law, enacted on Wednesday, exempts primary and secondary schools from having to fulfill the mandatory 200-day school calendar and minimum 800 hours of study, both of which are required by the education law, reports Xinhua news agency.

Primary and secondary schools will however, have to comply with the workload required by law, which is already being partially carried out through online classes.

Nevertheless, workloads may be completed next year at the discretion of each school through online educational activities.

Primary and secondary schools, as well as universities in Brazil suspended in-person classes since March, replacing them with online classes, due to the pandemic.

Brazil's northwestern state of Amazonas this week partially resumed in-person classes, becoming the only one to do so thus far.

Institutions of higher learning are also exempt from the mandatory 200 days of classes, but must fulfill the study program for each course.

Brazil currently accounts for the second highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths, just after the US.

As of Thursday, the total number of cases in the country stood at 3,456,652, while the death toll increased to 111,100.

It is also the country with the maximum amount of infections and fatalities in Latin America.

Sao Paulo, the most populated state in the country and the epicentre of the pandemic, has registered over 721,000 confirmed cases and 27,591 deaths, followed by Bahia, Ceara and Rio de Janeiro.