Coughing on the Day of Suneung... How Should Symptomatic Test Takers Proceed?

Temperature Check Before Entry... Separate Exam Room Prepared
"If Symptoms Appear, Get Tested Even Today"

On the 2nd, the preliminary gathering day for the 2021 College Scholastic Ability Test, examinees at Ewha Foreign Language High School in Seoul are receiving their admission tickets and quarantine supply sets through drive-thru and walk-thru formats. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] On the day of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), students with suspected symptoms of COVID-19 such as fever or cough can still take the exam. This is because the test is conducted by separating the movement paths of general test-takers, self-quarantined individuals, and confirmed cases.

According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters on the 2nd, the quarantine authorities and education authorities have prepared separate testing rooms for confirmed cases, self-quarantined individuals, and symptomatic persons in addition to the general testing rooms ahead of the CSAT on the 3rd.

If you have suspected symptoms on the morning of the CSAT day, you should wear a KF80 or KF94 mask in advance and go to the test site. You should also bring spare masks in case of contamination or loss.

Upon arrival at the test site, temperature measurement before entering is mandatory. If the temperature is 37.5 degrees Celsius or higher, or if there are suspected symptoms, a second measurement is required. The second measurement is conducted at a separate space after resting for 2 minutes, with measurements taken at 3-minute intervals.

However, if the temperature is 37.5 degrees Celsius or higher twice in a row during this process, the individual will be moved to a separate testing room. In the case of asymptomatic infected individuals, even if there is no problem during temperature measurement, if symptoms appear during the exam, they can be moved to a separate testing room after the end of that session.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hye emphasized on tbs Radio the day before the CSAT, "If you have suspected COVID-19 symptoms today, you must get a diagnostic test at the nearest public health center." If you need to urgently get tested for COVID-19 the day before the CSAT, you should go to a public health center, not a hospital (screening clinic). The public health centers will extend their working hours until 10 p.m. that day.

If you identify yourself as a test-taker and report the test to the local education office, you can check the results on the same day. Even if you are diagnosed positive on the day of the CSAT, you can take the exam at an infectious disease specialized hospital or a residential treatment center.

Specimens from test-takers are tested by the Health and Environment Research Institute, which sends results in the shortest time possible, so it is possible to be assigned a test site according to the test results. Kwon Jun-wook, the 2nd Deputy Head of the Central Disease Control Headquarters, stated, "It will take about 3 to 4 hours for the test results of CSAT test-takers to come out," and added, "If symptoms such as fever appear when entering without test results or without testing, the test will be taken at a separate testing room."

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