267 Students Confirmed COVID-19 Positive in the Past Week... Over 90 Schools Unable to Hold In-Person Classes

Weekly Student COVID-19 Cases Decrease by 35 from Last Week
166 Schools Closed for In-Person Classes... Impact of Cluster Infections in Chungnam and Daejeon

On the morning of the 14th, when in-person classes were expanded at middle schools in the Seoul metropolitan area, students who attended school at Wolchon Middle School in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, underwent COVID-19 prevention procedures such as temperature checks and hand sanitization before heading to their classrooms. To address the academic achievement gap caused by accumulated class shortages, the Ministry of Education relaxed the school density standard for middle schools in the metropolitan area from one-third to two-thirds starting that day. 2021.6.14 Photo by Joint Press Corps

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] In the past week, 267 students tested positive for COVID-19. Due to cluster infections in Chungnam and Daejeon, the number of schools conducting remote classes has significantly increased.

According to the Ministry of Education on the 17th, from the 10th to the 16th, a total of 267 students and 44 staff members from nationwide kindergartens, elementary, middle, and high schools tested positive for COVID-19. On average per day, 38.1 students and 6.3 staff members were confirmed positive. Compared to the previous week, the number of confirmed cases decreased by 35 students and 8 staff members.

The number of student cases over the week had been increasing for two consecutive weeks since June but decreased this week. The cumulative number of student COVID-19 cases this semester reached 4,830.

As of 10 a.m. on this day, 166 schools, accounting for 0.8% of all kindergartens, elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide, were unable to conduct in-person classes. This is an increase of 90 schools compared to the 10th. By region, the schools unable to hold in-person classes were 88 in Chungnam, 36 in Gyeonggi, and 16 in Daejeon.

The number of students attending in-person classes (as of 4 p.m. the previous day) was 4,701,000, representing 79.2% of all students. By school level, elementary schools had 79.3%, middle schools 76.0%, and high schools 80.0% attendance.

Since the 14th, the social distancing level 2 school density standard was relaxed to two-thirds, resulting in an 8.5 percentage point increase in middle school attendance compared to the previous week (67.5%).

In the past week, 96 new university students and 11 university staff members tested positive. The cumulative number of confirmed cases among university students and staff are 2,190 and 216, respectively.

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