《TAIPEI TIMES》 Ministry eases rules for schools with virus cases

MILDER INFECTIONS: Health officials said that a class suspension response task force would assist schools and local governments with policy-related questions

By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

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The Ministry of Education yesterday announced modified standards for suspending in-person classes when a COVID-19 case is confirmed.

Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang （莊人祥）, the Central Epidemic Command Center’s spokesman, said that the current high standard — in which a class of a confirmed case is to be suspended, and all classes suspended if a school has two or more cases — was set at the beginning of the pandemic, when people had limited knowledge about COVID-19.

As infection with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 often results in milder illness than earlier variants and most adolescents have been vaccinated, the standards for suspending in-person classes would be eased, Chuang said.

Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung （潘文忠） said that confirmed cases would be the catalyst to begin contact tracing and class counts would be the basis on which schools would be temporarily shut.

Flexible measures would be implemented to protect students’ right to education, Pan said

At senior-high school level and below, including cram schools and preschools, if a student is confirmed to have COVID-19, their entire class would be considered “close contacts” and placed in home isolation, Pan said.

The class would be suspended for 10 days until all of its members test negative, he said.

People who had direct contact with the case, including teachers and students in elective courses, club members, people who rode the same school bus and those who ate in the same cafeteria, would be suspended from in-person classes for one to three days and would have to practice self-health monitoring, he said.

After contact tracing, classes with no “close contacts” can resume in-person teaching, Pan said.

Close contacts would be placed under home isolation and tested, and their classes would be allowed to resume if they test negative, he said.

If more than 10 or more than one-third of classes in a school have suspended in-person classes for 10 days, the whole school must be temporarily shut, with all students, faculty and other personnel required to practice self-health monitoring, he said.

For colleges and universities, people who have direct contact with a case must not attend in-person classes for one to three days and practice self-health monitoring, Pan said.

Universities that have more than one-third of their departments suspended from in-person classes must temporarily close, with self-health monitoring mandated, he said.

The ministry has established a temporary in-person class suspension response task force to assist schools and local governments when they have questions about implementing the policy, he said.

If education providers want to enforce additional rules, they must consult with the task force in advance, he said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES