Starting from today, cross-border teachers and students who live in Nanping village in Zhuhai and Tanzhou village in Zhongshan, along with those who have visited Guoji HuaCheng Phase in Tanzhou village I & II or Nanping village, are not required to attend school in Macau, the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) announced yesterday.
According to the statement, schools will implement home-based learning programs for students as appropriate, and introduce exemptions from school absence and postponement of exams, if necessary.
For those who do not live in the above-mentioned priority areas, and who have not visited the designated areas within the past 14 days, are required to receive a negative nucleic acid test result valid for 24 hours before returning to schools in Macau.
Attendance and testing arrangements will be handled at the school’s discretion should cross-border students choose to suspend their return to school.
“The above measures are only applicable to (non-entering Macau) cross-border teachers and students currently in the Mainland, while those in Macau (already in the territory) will be recognized in the same way as the corresponding yellow-coded persons,” the DSEDJ added.
On January 15, cross-border students and staff of higher education institutions and non-higher education schools were suspended from attending school.
According to the official last week, there are about 500 students — 200 from the tertiary levels and 300 from the non-tertiary levels — still in Tanzhou, unable to return to Macau due to the Covid-19 outbreak in the area.
Also starting from last Friday — all individuals who have been in Nanping Village of Zhuhai’s Xiangzhou District and who have entered Macau are subject to quarantine at the designated site. This quarantine must last for a period of 14 days from the date of departure, and cannot be less than seven days, the New Coronavirus Contingency Coordination Center outlined last week.
The health code of all individuals who have been to this location and entered Macau will be converted to yellow, and they will be required to undergo self-management of health for a period of 14 days from the date of departure from this location.
During this period, a maximum of five nucleic acid tests should be performed on the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, and 12th days from the date of commencement of the measure.
As of yesterday, there were total of nine confirmed Covid-19 cases and one asyptomatic case in Tanzhou, Zhuhai, and one confirmed Covid-19 case in Zhongshan.
Jing Wu
