Chance Of School Outbreaks Is Reasonably High: Expert

A clinical associate professor of paediatrics said on Saturday that there is a reasonably high chance that Covid outbreaks will emerge in schools, when in-person classes resume in phases from Tuesday.

Primary school pupils will be the first to return to campus for half-day classes, and students are required to do a rapid test every day.

Unvaccinated students will also be barred from taking part in non-academic activities in the afternoon, such as special interest groups or sports.

But speaking after a radio show on Saturday, Patrick Ip from the University of Hong Kong said evidence already shows the highly-transmissible Omicron variant can spread through the air within a small space, such as a classroom.

"Even we have a lot of good precautions, I don't think we can totally avoid the transmission of Omicron virus after the school reopening. So after school reopening, the chances of getting infection within [the] school environment, or even having school outbreak, would be reasonably high," he said.

"That's why we need try our best to build up a safe environment to ensure every kid returning to the school would be in the optimal situation to resume their schooling and to resume their learning."

Ip urged parents to get their children inoculated before schools reopen, noting that the first-dose vaccination rate among children aged three to 11 is just around 60 percent.

The expert, who leads the Hong Kong Paediatric Society, also said he doesn't think there's a need for children to get a fourth dose of a Covid vaccine down the line.

"The fourth dose vaccination's aim is to boost up the immune response to cover those particular weak immune system subjects... Up to the present moment, I don't think there's any need to have fourth dose for our children, because of their optimal and very good immune response to the previous doses of vaccines," Ip said.

Speaking on the same radio show, education secretary Kevin Yeung expressed confidence over class resumption, stressing the infection-control measures in place.

He said class resumption can also help boost vaccination, as teachers can communicate with parents and pupils and explain more to them.

Health secretary Sophia Chan also said on the programme that authorities have made preparations for possible outbreaks, such as preparing the paediatric wards in public hospitals.