Coronavirus: warnings on campus cross-infection, worry over daily Covid tests as Hong Kong pupils prepare to return to school
- New policy of requiring pupils to get tested daily for the coronavirus before going to school has sparked concerns from parents of children with special needs
- Cross-infection risks on campus are ‘very high’ because the Omicron variant is extremely transmissible via short-range airborne particles, expert warns
The new policy of requiring pupils to get tested daily for the coronavirus before going to school has sparked concerns from parents of children with special needs, with such families expecting a “serious struggle” over having to subject their young ones to regular nose swabbing.
The Education Bureau earlier announced that in-person classes at the primary level, as well as at special and international schools, could resume on Tuesday after a suspension brought on in January by a fifth wave of infections. But all students have to show negative results on rapid antigen test (RAT) kits.
Pupils at secondary schools and kindergartens can return on May 3 at the earliest, also under the same measures.
The epidemic situation locally continued to improve, with 613 new Covid-19 cases logged on Monday, the fourth straight day infections were below the 1,000 mark. Twenty more deaths were also reported.
As schools readied for the resumption of face-to-face classes, Dr Patrick Ip Pak-keung, president of the Hong Kong Paediatric Society, warned that cross-infection risks on campus were “very high” because the Omicron variant was extremely transmissible via short-range airborne particles.