Students and Staff with Suspected COVID-19 Symptoms to Receive Diagnostic Tests Promptly

Yoo Eun-hye and Jung Eun-kyung Hold Video Conference on 31st... "No Secondary Transmission in Schools, but Cannot Be Assured"

On the first day of the second phase of school reopening, on the 27th, third-year students at Yeouido Middle School in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, are attending school. On this day, approximately 2.37 million students nationwide, including second-year high school students, third-year middle school students, first and second graders in elementary school, and kindergarteners, are attending schools and kindergartens across the country. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] Students and staff showing suspected symptoms of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) will be able to receive diagnostic tests promptly from now on.

The Ministry of Education announced that Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hye and Jung Eun-kyung, head of the Central Disease Control Headquarters, discussed this matter through a video conference on the 31st.

During the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Yoo and Director Jung agreed that based on recent case analyses, there has been no evidence of secondary COVID-19 transmission through infections within schools, but they concurred on the need to monitor the occurrence of COVID-19 during the approximately two-week incubation period.

They particularly diagnosed that the situation is not yet safe, as localized cluster infections continue due to the Coupang Bucheon Logistics Center and various religious gatherings, as well as COVID-19 infections through multi-use facilities such as academies, PC rooms, and karaoke rooms.

Deputy Prime Minister Yoo and Director Jung decided to proceed with related consultations to enable students, teachers, and staff showing suspected symptoms within schools to receive diagnostic tests promptly throughout June, as part of strengthening COVID-19 prevention and management within schools.

With in-person classes having started, students and staff are required to undergo diagnostic testing even if only mild suspected symptoms appear; however, there have been criticisms that it is difficult to get tested without clear suspected symptoms, so they agreed to improve this situation.

Additionally, Deputy Prime Minister Yoo and Director Jung decided to produce and distribute 'Guidelines for Compliance with Self-Quarantine and Behavioral Instructions' to suspected cases within schools who had specimens collected at screening clinics, to strengthen management by preventing the use of multi-use facilities such as PC rooms and billiard halls. They also agreed to align the revised COVID-19 response guidelines' clinical symptom examples with daily self-diagnosis checklist items at home to enhance the effectiveness of suspected case classification and screening clinic testing.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.