Quebec’s elementary and younger high school students will be divided into smaller subgroups, or “bubbles,” and no longer switch classes when they return to school this fall, Reuters quoted education officials in the Canadian province hit hardest by the coronavirus outbreak as saying on Tuesday.

Students up to grade 9 will return to regular classes but will remain in the same room, separated into groups of six, Quebec Education Minister Jean-François Roberge said.

“A lot of specialists and pediatricians say, of course, the virus is dangerous,” he told reporters in Montreal. “But not to go to school is dangerous too.”

Many countries are reopening schools with half-full classrooms, staggered school drop-off times and plastic shields around students’ desks. But plans for fall classes are being clouded by fears of a second wave of coronavirus.