City schools which closed early for the summer break because of swine flu will reopen as normal, the education minister said yesterday.
Criteria on whether individual schools will be closed because of an outbreak of A(H1N1) would be similar to closure guidelines for seasonal flu.
However, Secretary for Education Michael Suen Ming-yeung would not rule out a city-wide closure of schools.
A new policy, modelled on the existing guidelines on dealing with seasonal flu, was released yesterday to state the conditions under which a school will be closed in case of a swine flu outbreak. A closure will last seven days, instead of 14.
'We have decided that schools can start their terms as scheduled beginning from next Monday,' Mr Suen said. 'Schools should stay alert and take all preventive measures.'
The Australian International School is to reopen on Monday, and most other schools will reopen late next month or in early September.
The Education Bureau said guidelines on city-wide class suspensions were not needed now, but would remain an option if the Centre for Health Protection considered it necessary. The city-wide closure option arose after Yuen Kwok-yung, a University of Hong Kong microbiologist, warned against taking the danger of swine flu too lightly.