SEOUL, 07 Feb. (Yonhap) — Schools will decide whether to stick to face-to-face classes or switch to distance learning depending on their own virus situation from the coming semester, the education ministry said Monday. .
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As part of a new Covid-19 response measure scheduled to be implemented from March, schools will be able to choose, depending on the circumstances related to the virus, from a four-phase system ranging from from full in-person courses to fully online courses to partial online learning.
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Each school will be recommended not to transition to full distance learning under the new program unless 3% of students test positive or 15% self-quarantine due to viral infection or close contact with virus-infected patients, the ministry said.
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The shift to fully online courses will be adopted with caution under conditions predefined by each institution and through close consultation with the Ministry of Education as well as regional education and quarantine authorities.
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Schools will also have to detect cases of the virus and carry out contact tracing themselves by taking advantage of rapid antigen test kits and mobile polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing labs, officials said.
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Schools above the elementary level will receive enough rapid antigen test kits to test 20% of their students, while kindergartens and elementary schools will receive additional rapid antigen test kits covering 30% of their enrollment.
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Universities will also be advised to stick to in-person lessons in the new semester and develop a two-step contingency plan to switch to remote learning in the event of a crisis situation with the consent of the students.
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The measures came as South Korea braces for another upsurge in the highly transmissible Omicron variant. The country reported 35,286 new Covid-19 infections on Monday, the third day in a row that the daily tally topped the 35,000 mark.
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Health authorities said the number of new Covid-19 patients could reach between 130,000 and 170,000 by the end of this month due to the Omicron surge.
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At the end of January, people aged 18 or under represented 26.9% of the 100,000 patients with Covid-19, compared to 25.1% at the end of December.
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