Schools to delay spring semester for 2 more weeks

With the snowballing numbers of COVID-19 infections here, all kindergartens, and elementary, middle and high schools have been ordered to delay their new school year by two more weeks, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said Monday. The education ministry had already ordered schools to postpone their new school year by a week. The spring semester will now begin March 23.

The move comes amid growing concerns of the infectious disease spreading among young children who have more vulnerable immune systems. As another sharp increase in confirmed cases has been reported in Daegu, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak here, the city's education office ordered its 800 schools to delay the start of the new semester by an additional 2 weeks.

The government has so far reported more than 4,200 new COVID-19 cases, with more than 87 percent of them identified in the southeastern city of Daegu and the surrounding North Gyeongsang Province, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(KCDC).

The education ministry had been expected to delay schools reopening for the spring semester by two more weeks as the country has observed a soaring number of people infected with the highly contagious virus. The health authorities also said many more confirmed virus cases are expected in the coming days as health authorities have begun testing more than 210,000 followers of the Shinchoenji Church in Daegu.

The education ministry said it has been closely consulting with regional education offices to rearrange the academic calendar of the schools following the delayed spring semester. The MOE has advised them to reduce the coming summer vacation which will start in July.

"The decision has come with the recent increase in the number of confirmed cases in the country. It is important to prevent students from being infected with the highly contagious virus through the pre-emptive measure to block the further spread in their homes and the community," Education Minister Yoo Eunhae said during a press briefing at the Government Complex in Seoul.

Following the measure, an emergency care service for preschool and elementary-age children of working parents has been put in place. The MOE said more parents are expected to apply for the emergency care services during the extended period until school reopening.

In addition, the education ministry announced earlier that it will take 5.8 million of the 12.7 million masks purchased by elementary, middle and high schools and redistribute them to the general public so as to ease a supply shortage of masks.

Those masks will be available at post offices and stores of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation soon, better known as Nonghyup here. The MOE also said schools in Seoul and nearby Gyeonggi Province and Incheon supplied 1.6 million masks Saturday, and dozens of other regions including Gangwon, Daejeon, Busan and Ulsan will also hand over 4.2 million masks soon.