《TAIPEI TIMES》 Schools ready to reopen on Sept. 1, local officials say

By Cheng Ming-hsiang and Lin Hsin-han / Staff reporters

Schools would open for the new semester on Sept. 1 as long as the nation’s COVID-19 alert remains at level 2 over the coming weeks, most local governments said yesterday.

請繼續往下閱讀...

Taipei Deputy Mayor Tsai Ping-kun （蔡炳坤） said that students would be required to wear masks, and must have dividers to separate them when eating.

No outdoor sports would be permitted, in line with the Central Epidemic Command Center’s （CECC） recommendations, he said.

For music classes, teachers would only provide instruction and demonstrations, as students would not be permitted to remove their masks to perform, he added.

If a student is diagnosed with COVID-19, their class would be suspended, Tsai said of the city government’s tentatively planned measures to handle infections, adding that if two were infected, then the school would close.

If one-third of schools within a district are shut down due to COVID-19, all schools within the district would close, he added.

New Taipei City Education Department Commissioner Chang Ming-wen （張明文） said that schools in the city would be open under alert levels 1 and 2, adding that if the alert is raised to level 3, but there are no confirmed cases within a district, then schools in that district would remain open.

School would close for three days if there is one confirmed case reported, and 14 days if there are two COVID-19 cases, he said.

Taichung officials also said that students in the city would begin the new semester on Sept. 1, adding that the city has 93 percent vaccine coverage for its high-school and elementary-school teachers.

Tainan officials said that although they are in principle preparing to open schools on Sept. 1, they would adhere to the CECC’s guidelines for students at high-school level and below.

Additional reporting by Liu Wan-chun and Su Meng-chuan

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES