In the Second Week of School, 47,854 Students Confirmed Positive in a Day... 18,884 More Than the Previous Week

83.9% of Students Attended School, Kindergarten > Elementary > Middle Schools
89.1% of Schools Conducted Full Attendance Classes
Number of Students Barred from Attendance via Self-Diagnosis App Also Increasing

As the spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant continues, children are heading to school on the morning of the 2nd, when elementary, middle, and high schools reopened, at Geumyang Elementary School in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] In the past week, an average of 47,854 students per day were confirmed positive for COVID-19. This represents a 64% increase in the daily average number of confirmed cases compared to the previous week.

According to the Ministry of Education, from March 8 to 14, the total number of confirmed cases among nationwide kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school students was 334,979, averaging 47,854 per day. This is an increase of 18,884 cases per day (64.4%) compared to the previous week (29,100 cases per day).

The number of confirmed cases among school staff over the week was 27,120, averaging 3,874 per day. The daily average of confirmed staff cases also increased by 1,465 compared to the previous week (2,409 cases per day).

The number of students attending school was 4.92 million, accounting for 83.9% of all students. The attendance rates by school level were lowest in kindergarten (78.5%), followed by elementary school (83.2%), middle school (85.6%), and high school (86.2%).

Among all schools, 18,090 schools (89.1%) conducted full in-person classes. Schools with partial in-person classes numbered 2,011 (9.9%), full remote classes were held in 180 schools (0.9%), and 31 schools (0.2%) were on vacation or discretionary closure.

In the metropolitan area, 84.0% of schools conducted full in-person classes, while in non-metropolitan areas, 92.1% did so.

The number of students who received attendance suspension notices through the self-diagnosis app also surged. Participation rates were ▲87.9% on the 10th ▲86.4% on the 11th ▲88.1% on the 12th. The number of students receiving attendance suspension notices were ▲284,666 on the 10th ▲296,492 on the 11th ▲333,230 on the 12th.

By region, as of the 14th, the number of schools conducting remote classes was highest in ▲Gyeonggi with 28 schools ▲Jeonnam with 28 schools ▲Gyeongbuk with 27 schools ▲Seoul with 21 schools.

Over the week, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases among university students was 16,622, and among university staff was 1,949. The daily average of confirmed cases was 2,374 for university students and 287 for staff.

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