China must aim to curb Covid-19 before school term, health minister says
- Schools and universities will start in September as scheduled, Ma Xiaowei says
- 36 of the 48 cities where there has been an outbreak had not reported a case in more than six days as of Saturday, he says
“Back-to-school season will start in September, and tertiary institutions and secondary and primary schools will start as scheduled,” National Health Commission director Ma Xiaowei said on Monday.
“We need to strive to get the pandemic under control by the end of August to let society return to normalcy as soon as possible.”
01:56
Covid-19 Delta variant cluster spreads in China’s eastern Jiangsu province
“In the 48 cities where there was an outbreak, as of [Saturday], 36 cities had not reported a case in more than six days,” he said. “Besides places such as Yangzhou, other places only had sporadic cases.
Yangzhou, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, has been one of the hotspots of the outbreak. The wave of cases began on July 20 in Nanjing, Jiangsu’s capital, and spread to 48 cities in 18 provinces.
On Tuesday, 42 new symptomatic cases and 17 asymptomatic cases were reported. Of the symptomatic cases, six were identified locally and 36 were imported, with those infected locally – three in Jingmen, in Hubei province, and three in Yangzhou – being admitted to hospital for treatment.
All of the 17 asymptomatic cases were imported. People not showing symptoms are not counted towards the health commission’s case tally.
02:23
Covid-19 returns to China’s Wuhan as Delta variant spreads to 10 provinces
Sixty million doses had been administered to 12-to-17-year-olds by last week, according to the epidemic control task force of the State Council, China’s cabinet, as local governments ramped up their vaccination drives before school resumes.
Zhengzhou, the Henan provincial capital and one of the hotspots, announced on Tuesday that children in the age group were to be fully vaccinated by September 15, joining other areas including Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan and Hainan that aimed to inoculate most of that age range in the next month.
Although two Chinese-made jabs have been approved for emergency use on children aged three to 11, the epidemic task force has yet to announce vaccination plans for that age group.
Some education bureaus have also announced measures aimed at ensuring that schools resume on time on September 1.
The Beijing Municipal Education Commission has banned pupils and school staff living in medium and high-risk areas from entering school grounds until their homes have been reclassified as low-risk and they produce a negative test. Students from low-risk areas outside Beijing must also stay in the capital for 14 days before being allowed on school grounds, while those from medium and high-risk places are barred from the city altogether.
The authorities in Jiangsu will not allow students at universities and colleges back on campus until September 15, while Fujian province will require schools to keep records of the travel and contact history of every teacher and student for the 14 days preceding reopening.
Last September, China staggered the start of the autumn term and universities were placed in a semi-lockdown, with students and staff forbidden from leaving campus unless absolutely necessary.
In addition to the urgency imposed by the approaching return of students, political pressure has been mounting to end the current wave of infections.
