Education authority to screen school staff and cross-border students to prevent outbreak

In this December 2019 file photo, students have physical education class at the Pui Ching Middle School in Macau

The Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ) is performing nucleic acid screening tests for Covid-19 on all teachers, school staff, and cross-border students ahead of class resumption, deputy director of the DSEJ, Kong Chi Meng announced during the daily press conference of the Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Center.
The measures come in preparation for the resumption of classes for senior secondary and junior secondary education students, due to restart on May 4 and 11, respectively. They aim to guarantee that all staff and cross-border students are in good health, preventing a possible new outbreak, Kong added.
As the official noted, the DSEJ has been advising all teachers, school staff, and cross-border students that are not in Macau at the moment, to return to the region in time to fulfill a 14-day mandatory isolation period and to be screen-tested according to the scheduling previously announced.
Kong also noted that Covid-19 testing for teaching staff starts today and will continue until April 30, remarking that on the first day, five teachers have already registered to be tested according to the guidelines, enabling them to get a health certificate that will allow them to work from May 4.
In response to several questions from the media during yesterday’s press conference, Kong also noted that cross-border students from Zhuhai will be allowed to return home every day after school, but that the Covid-19 nasopharyngeal swab test will have to be repeated every seven days.
In reply to the media, Kong also added, “We anticipate that around 5,200 people will need to perform the test [in the first phase].”
According to estimates previously made by the Conde de São de Januário Hospital Center, 1,000 tests can be conducted per day.
Teacher mobility justifies testing
Questioned as to why the DSEJ decided to test all the teachers and staff but not local students, Kong said that the decision is based on the risk posed by mobility and multiple contacts.
“We are testing local teachers and not students because of their mobility and the fact that they need to have contact with several groups of students from different classes and sometimes even from different schools,” the deputy director said.
“As for students, we issued guidelines in which we will not allow any activities that demand contact between different classes. These students will only have contact with their classmates and will also not be involved in any other extracurricular activities. But this does not apply to teachers and that is why we need to adopt different treatment.”
Regarding the students that will have to lodge in Macau, Kong said that the requirement only applies to those from the city of Zhongshan but not from Zhuhai.
“We have around 30 students in that situation [with a need to lodge in Macau] and half of them have already found lodging. If any of them cannot find a place to stay we can provide such lodging in the youth centers, which are managed by private institutions. We do not know yet if we are going to need to use them or not, but if so we will rent such a space and assume the expenses of the lodging of those students.”

‘Caretaker’ teachers to join testing cohort
One of the facts that created doubt in the scheduling of tests by the DSEJ was the information that primary and kindergarten teachers would be also included in the Covid-19 screening to be performed in May.
On this topic, Kong clarified that this is not related to the resumption of primary and kindergarten school levels but, instead, due to a program from the government that will provide special help to families that cannot find caretakers for their children in those school levels.
“We are requesting that other teachers are also tested because we have a ‘courtesy measure’ that aims to help these families,” clarified Kong.
“This is caretaking, not formal classes, and it only applies to families that have no domestic helpers or any other family member that can take care of the children.” He added that “these are very special cases and do not apply to full classes or a large number of students.”
He further explained that the program is scheduled to start from May 11.