Hong Kong schools have been taking extra precautions against the flu as most classes resumed after an extended Lunar New Year holiday.
Schools have taken a range of measures such as cancelling assemblies and asking students to submit their travel records for the period.
At St Patrick’s School, morning assemblies have been cancelled for the week.
“We want to avoid children clustering together,” said its principal, Cheung Chok-fong. The measure had been in place prior to the extended school break.
The school also required to submit a record of holiday travel for better tracing in case of infection. Such measures are in addition to regular ones such as doing temperature checks and asking students to wear masks on campus.
The Baptist Rainbow Primary School underwent a thorough cleaning and sanitisation exercise during the break.
They also arranged an on-campus vaccination service for students, reported the South China Morning Post.
“We had very few pupils calling in sick today,” said Chu Tsz-wing, the school’s principal.
More than 70% of the school’s students have been vaccinated.
Before schools closed early for Lunar New Year – which was a measure taken to stem the spread of flu – most outbreaks were seen in kindergartens and primary schools.
So far 15 children have been affected by severe flu and two have died. Public hospitals remained busy amid the flu season.
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