Health

Students return to classrooms in China after ‘zero Covid-19′

Beijing, Feb 13 (EFE).- More than 300 million people between teachers and students returned this week to face-to-face classes in China after the “zero Covid-19” policy was removed and after the break for Lunar New Year holidays.

The semester started on different dates depending on regional policies, and it is the first face-to-face school period since the country decided to dismantle the Covid-19 strategy at the beginning of December.

In Beijing, more than 1 million primary and secondary students return to classes, the China Daily newspaper reported. For the first time in months they will not have to show negative nucleic acid test results to enter classrooms.

However, schools will have to follow some protocols this semester

“If we find positives, our school will activate emergency measures. Those infected will have to take tests and will only be able to enter class once they test negative. If the number of people who contract a fever exceeds five in one day, or reaches 10 percent of the total number of students, the class will be suspended for five days,” the director of a school in the southern city of Guangdong told state television CCTV.

The return to classes represents a new step in the return to normality in the country after the Lunar New Year holidays, which fell in 2023 between Jan. 21 and Jan. 27, a period in which some experts had predicted a Covid-19 spread due to the high number of commutes.

But according to the China Center for Disease Control, the peak of deaths in hospitals due to covid was on Jan. 4, with 4,273, while the number of hospital admissions due to Covid-19 reached its ceiling of 1,6 million on Jan. 5.

According to the latest official figures released by the center, a total of 912 people died from covid in hospitals between Feb. 3 and Thursday.

After almost three years of harsh restrictions, confinements and practically total closure of borders that ended up crystallizing in protests in various parts of the country, China began to dismantle its “zero Covid-19” guideline at the beginning of December. EFE

jco/lds

Related Articles

Back to top button