According to Global Times, the latest resurgence of Covid-19 in China has shown a tendency to spread among schools, affecting students and kindergarten children, as at least four places have detected outbreaks related to schools and kindergartens.
New local infections in the border city of Heihe, Heilongjiang Province, have remained high in recent days, reaching a high of 44 cases.
The province’s total number of confirmed domestically transmitted cases reached 189, with Heihe accounting for 184 of them.
At least 20 confirmed cases in Heihe involve schools or kindergartens, affecting at least one primary school and two kindergartens. According to local authorities, a local university, Heihe College, was closed after 10 close contacts were discovered.
Two outbreak locations in Hebei Province, Xinji and Shenze, were also linked to schools and kindergartens. Hebei discovered 23 new confirmed cases on Wednesday, 20 from Shenze county and three from Xinji.
The 20 confirmed cases in Shenze included students, the youngest of whom was said to be 2 years old. The other three Xinji students were all 11-year-old elementary school students.
Gansu, which reported at least 12 confirmed cases among students, suspended in-person classes in 10,818 schools and kindergartens, accounting for 62% of the total number of local schools. 2.84 million students and 250,000 teachers were affected by the relocation.
All universities in Gansu will be managed in a closed-loop system.
Following recent outbreaks of confirmed cases, Beijing’s Chaoyang district also suspended classes at 18 schools.
Zhang Yuexin, an expert in epidemic prevention and control, told the Global Times on Thursday that epidemic resurgences in schools should be given more attention because student infections can easily spread among communities. Because young people have lower vaccination rates, they may be more vulnerable to the virus.
