Coronavirus: Hong Kong students from Primary Four to Form Two to resume classes on Monday despite infection fears in Sha Tin
- Education chief confirms move and says officials and schools in area near Covid-19 cluster have ramped up communication to alleviate concern
- No new local infection reported on the weekend, but three imported cases recorded
Students in Hong Kong from Primary Four to Form Two will resume classes on Monday even as concerns mount over a recent cluster of coronavirus infections linked to a public housing block.
Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung said some parents with children studying in Sha Tin had expressed fear after seven residents of Luk Chuen House at Lek Yuen Estate in the district were confirmed with Covid-19.
The city also recorded three imported cases on Saturday, bringing the tally to 1,105. The new patients comprised a 26-year-old woman from Britain and two arrivals from Pakistan. No new local case was reported.
Yeung said officials and schools in Sha Tin had ramped up communication following the emergence of the housing block cluster, while institutions near the estate were working to assure students, teachers and parents.
“We have communicated with medical experts and we will go ahead with resuming classes Monday. But I believe schools will be more careful and meticulous in their preparation work,” Yeung said on a Saturday radio programme.
His remarks came after 75 residents of Luk Chuen House – from flats numbered 12 and 10 across all floors – were evacuated from their homes this week.
The move was made when five residents from three flats numbered 12, and one numbered 10, were confirmed with the virus. Two other infected residents in the block had stayed in flats of different numbers on the eighth floor, where the building’s first reported patient, a 34-year-old woman, also lived.