Coronavirus: Hong Kong students, teachers will have to do daily rapid Covid tests when schools reopen; city confirms 1,407 new cases
- City leader Carrie Lam says 10 million rapid test kits will be distributed to schools for free
- Unvaccinated students will be barred from non-academic activities when face-to-face classes resume, she adds
Hong Kong students and teachers will be required to undergo daily rapid coronavirus tests when face-to-face classes resume after the Easter holiday, the city’s leader has said, with 10 million screening kits to be provided to schools for free.
At her daily epidemic press conference on Monday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor also said unvaccinated pupils would not be allowed to take part in non-academic activities such as sports and music for their own protection.
“Vaccinated pupils can still get infected and transmit the virus,” Lam said. “But for the unvaccinated ones … they could become severe cases.”
“We need to protect the unvaccinated students,” she added.
So far, a total of 48 coronavirus patients under 18 years old have been in either serious or critical condition.
Hong Kong confirmed 1,407 new coronavirus cases on Monday, of which 709 were uncovered using rapid antigen tests (RAT) and the remaining 698 detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests. Thirteen of the latest cases were imported.