From the 18th, proactive testing once a week... Only symptomatic and high-risk contacts in the same class will be investigated

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

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[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] School quarantine standards are being eased. Starting from the 18th, proactive testing will be reduced to once a week, and contact testing conducted when a confirmed case occurs will be limited to symptomatic and high-risk students.

The Ministry of Education announced on the 12th that proactive testing using rapid antigen test kits will be conducted once a week in principle, allowing metropolitan and provincial superintendents of education to operate flexibly. Proactive testing for students will change from twice a week to once a week, while staff will maintain weekly testing.

The testing tools will utilize the emergency stockpile, which the government has reserved at about 30% of the number of students and staff and is distributing to metropolitan and provincial offices of education.

In cases where confirmed cases occur within schools, contact testing from the 18th will be changed to two tests within five days for symptomatic and high-risk students. Until now, three tests within seven days were conducted for all students in the same class.

High-risk individuals with underlying conditions will undergo one PCR test and one rapid antigen test within five days, while symptomatic individuals will undergo two rapid antigen tests within five days.

These quarantine standards will be applied until the end of this month. After May, the school quarantine guidelines and COVID-19 response system will be further adjusted considering changes in the government’s quarantine and medical systems and opinions from metropolitan and provincial offices of education.

The Ministry of Education made this decision considering that confirmed cases began to decline from the fourth week of March, most confirmed cases were symptomatic, and that fatigue from proactive testing had increased in schools and homes after being maintained for over a month.

According to Ministry of Education statistics, the average daily number of confirmed student cases per week decreased from 60,000 (third week of March) to 53,000 (fourth week of March), and then to 41,000 (fifth week of March).

Analysis linking school proactive testing results with confirmed case data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency showed that among 274,943 confirmed cases from March 21 to April 3, 241,478 (87.83%) were symptomatic with symptoms such as cough, fever, and chills, while 33,465 (12.17%) were asymptomatic.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Yoo Eun-hye stated, "Experts expect a gradual decline to continue for the time being, so it is necessary to maintain the effective rapid antigen testing system until the end of April," adding, "Considering the fatigue of schools and families regarding quarantine, the testing system will be partially eased, and from May onward, school quarantine guidelines will be further supplemented and guided according to changes in quarantine authorities’ guidelines."

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