60,000 Seoul Students and Staff Confirmed COVID-19 Positive in One Week... First Decline Since March

55,419 Student Confirmed Cases, Down 8,629 from Last Week
Student Infection Rate per 10,000 Also Decreasing
553.2→633.9→768.1→665.4 Cases
Both Schools and Students with Full Attendance Increased

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The number of COVID-19 confirmed cases among students and staff in Seoul, which had surged for three consecutive weeks since the start of the school year in March, has decreased for the first time in the past week.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education on the 29th, from the 21st to the 27th, the number of confirmed cases among kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school students in Seoul was 55,419, and the number of confirmed staff cases was 5,189.

The number of confirmed cases, which was close to 70,000 the previous week, dropped to 60,608, nearly 10,000 fewer. Student cases decreased by 8,629 and staff cases by 561 compared to the previous week.

In the past week, the incidence rate of confirmed student cases per 10,000 was 665.4. Among them, the incidence rate per 10,000 was highest for elementary students at 712.5, followed by middle school students at 587.8, high school students at 500, and kindergarten at 428.8.

The incidence rate per 10,000 also shifted to a downward trend for the first time in four weeks. The incidence rates for the three weeks after the school year started were ▲Week 1 of March: 553.2 ▲Week 2: 633.9 ▲Week 3: 768.1, increasing, but dropped to 665.4 in the fourth week.

Confirmed cases decreased while schools and students attending full in-person classes increased. As of the 28th, among all 2,109 kindergartens, elementary, middle, high, and special schools in Seoul, 1,747 schools, or 82.8%, conducted full in-person classes. The number of schools conducting full in-person classes increased by 5.6 percentage points from last week (77.2%).

By school level, 98.3% of kindergartens, 87.9% of high schools, 70.1% of elementary schools, and 67.9% of middle schools held full in-person classes.

Among the total 879,128 students in kindergartens, elementary, middle, high, and special schools in Seoul, 747,269 students, or 85%, attended in-person classes. The number of students attending school increased by about 26,000 compared to the previous week.

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