The Ministry of Education (MOE) yesterday issued guidelines for suspension of classes should cases of COVID-19 be confirmed on campus.
Schools from kindergartens to senior-high are scheduled to reopen on Tuesday next week, after the start of classes following the winter break was delayed by two weeks due to concerns about the COVID-19 outbreak in China.
Universities are expected to begin their second semester of the academic year on or after Tuesday.
Photo: Wang Chun-chi, Taipei Times
According to the ministry’s guidelines, a class would be suspended in kindergartens through senior-highs if one student or teacher is confirmed by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) to have the virus.
If two or more students or teachers at a school are confirmed to have the virus, the school must suspend all classes.
If one-third of schools in a township or district have been forced to shut due to the virus, the remaining schools must close as well, the guidelines state.
Photo: Huang Hsu-lei, Taipei Times
If one university student or teacher is infected, all courses taken by that student or taught by the instructor would be suspended, while in the event of two or more confirmed cases, the university must close its campus, the ministry said.
Class suspensions would last 14 days, it said, adding that the guidelines could be subject to change.
In addition, all public events held by a school should be suspended if there is a confirmed case on campus, the ministry said.
Taipei Deputy Mayor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) told reporters that guidelines left questions about how close or far apart the first and second cases of COVID-19 at a school would have to be to warrant a school-wide closure and the ministry should clarify the issue.
Otherwise, there could be “mistakes in judgement,” Huang said.
The Taipei City Government has set a 14-day time frame, meaning that a school would close if two cases are confirmed within 14 days of each other, she said.
Taipei Department of Education Director Tseng Tsan-chin (曾燦金) said the 14-day time frame was based on COVID-19’s 14-day incubation period, but the department would consult with the CECC.
Additional reporting by Tsai Ya-hua
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
RSS