Schools fully opens in-person classes amid surging infections

Nov 22, 2021, 09:30 am

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Students return home from school in Seoul on Nov. 29, 2021./ Source: Yonhap

AsiaToday reporter Park Ah-ram

South Korea reported the highest number of coronavirus cases for a weekend, staying above 3,000 for the fifth consecutive day Sunday. Concerns are growing over a virus resurgence as all kindergartens and schools across the country returned to full-scale in-person classes from Monday.

The country reported 3,120 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total caseload to 415,425, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

Usually, the number of confirmed cases decreases on weekends as the number COVID-19 tests decreases. However, there was no such “weekend effect” amid the spread of the pandemic.

The number of critically ill COVID-19 patients reached 517, up 9 from a day earlier. The country added 30 more deaths from the virus, bringing the death toll to 3,271. The fatality rate stood at 0.79 percent.

Under such circumstances, in-person classes in the greater Seoul area fully resumed on Monday, raising expectations and concerns at the same time.

“(The full opening) is aimed to resolve the learning loss as well as psychological and emotional loss that have been accumulated over the past two years as in-person and online classes have been conducted concurrently,” an official from the Ministry of Education said. “We will strengthen quarantine measures to ensure a stable expansion of in-person classes.”

The ministry said it will allow local education authorities to autonomously manage school operations based on specific conditions of regions and individual educational institutions.

In the greater Seoul area, where there are many confirmed cases, additional quarantine-related personnel will be established to establish a safe education environment.

In addition, the government has decided to allow students to attend classes even if one of their family members tests positive, under the condition that the student has been fully vaccinated or submits a negative PCR test result and does not display any coronavirus-like symptoms.

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