Singapore to reopen schools after holiday despite virus outbreak

School

Kuala Lumpur, March 19, 2020 (dpa/NAN) Singapore’s Ministry of Education announced on Thursday that schools and kindergartens would open again on Monday, allaying concerns a week of holidays could be extended due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Singapore’s coronavirus cases increased from 178 to 313 over the past week and is the second-highest in south-east Asia after Malaysia’s 790.

The ministry said schools would deploy “enhanced precautionary measures’’ that would include daily temperature checks and “wipe-down routines’’ in classrooms when they return.

Singapore has seen a reduction in locally transmitted cases of coronavirus, but the Health Ministry announced a new daily record high of 47 positive diagnoses on Wednesday night.

Of the new cases, 33 were described as imported.

Out of the new cases, 30 were returning Singaporeans, 19 of whom had recently flown home from Europe.

The novel strain of coronavirus has unleashed a global pandemic, whose epicentre has now shifted to Europe, since it jumped from an unknown animal species to the human population in December.

The Education Ministry on Thursday said that teachers or students, who had been overseas and returned anytime from March 14, would be given a two-week “leave of absence”.

It came after authorities said Singaporeans returning from abroad would have to self-isolate for 14 days, the maximum estimated incubation period for COVID-19. (dpa/NAN)

HLM/AIB

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Edited by Hadiza Mohammed/Abdulfatah Babatunde