No Date Yet For Full School Resumption: Kevin Yeung

Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung on Sunday said authorities still don’t know when local schools can fully resume in-person classes, and there’s no current plan for teachers to be included among the priority groups to receive Covid-19 vaccinations.

Covid restrictions are set to be eased for local schools on Monday, with one third of pupils allowed to return for face-to-face classes, up from one-sixth previously.

Schools that can arrange regular coronavirus tests for all teachers and staff can apply for all students to attend half-day classes starting on Monday.

Yeung said so far, authorities have received around 200 applications – mostly from tuition schools and kindergartens.

The minister stressed that it’s purely voluntary for school staff to get tested once every fortnight, and authorities have no plans to make such tests mandatory for teachers, given that there have not been many Covid-19 infections linked to schools in the past.

Asked whether teachers could be included as a priority group for the government’s universal vaccination programme that is due to start on Friday, Yeung said there is no current plan to do so.

However, he said once the supply of vaccines rises, that would make it easier to vaccinate more groups of people – including teachers.

As to when classes can fully resume for all schools, Yeung said no one yet knows.

“We have to consider the overall situation of the outbreak, expert opinions, and what schools have done in terms of anti-epidemic work when considering [a full resumption] of classes… As to when all students can go back to school for face-to-face classes, we will only decide after seeing how the epidemic develops.”