The Macau authorities today assured that everything is ready for return to school on Tuesday, with most schools reopening on the first day of the month.
The authorities reported today that they have carried out “simulations to verify that schools have already carried out the necessary cleaning work” to prevent the spread of the disease, adding that “most of them have already done this work”.
During the conference on the situation of the covid-19 in the territory, the head of the department of education of the Directorate of Education and Youth Services (DSEJ), Wong Ka Ki, also announced the opening, from Tuesday, of “a specific corridor for cross-border students “, operating” between 6:00 am and 8:30 am “, to avoid delays or agglomerations at times when there is the greatest travel.
According to the same source, there are around 3,000 border students from the neighboring city of Zhuhai, in mainland China, studying in Macau.
The authorities also reported that “the PSP will reinforce patrols at school gates and at border posts”.
Most schools reopen as of September 1, with the Portuguese School of Macau starting a week later, announced the Directorate of Education and Youth Services (DSEJ) last week.
The students of the territory had a troubled school year, with classes suspended in late January, due to the covid-19 pandemic. The return took place in a phased manner from May.
In order to ensure a safe return to school, DSEJ called on schools to do a good job in preventing and controlling the epidemic and advised students and teachers to “raise their awareness” of health care, “avoid traveling to infected areas and abroad ”and“ keeping abreast of the latest developments in the epidemic and restrictions on immigration ”.
Schools are also “required to thoroughly clean and disinfect their ‘campuses'” before the new school year begins, according to a note released by authorities in mid-August.
Social detachment, the mandatory use of a mask and temperature measurement should remain mandatory, in order to prevent the spread of the disease, in a territory that has never registered community transmission.
Macau was one of the first territories to be affected by the pandemic in late January, having registered only 46 cases. Currently, there are no active cases.
The covid-19 pandemic has already claimed at least 843,000 deaths and infected more than 25 million people in 196 countries and territories, according to a report by the France-Presse news agency (AFP).
The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late December in Wuhan, a city in central China.