A teacher gives hand sanitizer to a South Korean student before a college scholastic ability test at a high school in Seoul
South Korea reported its biggest spike in coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic, as hundreds of thousands of masked students flocked to schools on Thursday for the country’s highly competitive college entrance exam, amid growing concerns about the delta-driven spread. There were concerns.
Around 509,000 students were taking the one-day exams at 1,395 sites across the country, including hospitals and shelters.
The annual test, called the “Suneng” or College Scholastic Ability Test, is important in a country obsessed with education, where career, social status and even marriage prospects depend to a large extent on Which university a person goes to.
Students were required to take their temperature before entering classes, and those with fever were sent to separate testing areas. The Ministry of Education said that 68 infected students and 105 others took the exam in isolation for hours in self-quarantine.
The 3,292 new cases reported by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Thursday marked the second straight day of more than 3,000 cases. 29 patients died in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 3,187, while 506 others were in critical or critical condition, the agency said.
To reduce noise, transportation officials were planning to temporarily halt the landing and departure of planes at airports during the English-listening portion of the test. Employees of government offices and private companies were late, and the country’s stock exchange delayed its opening by an hour to clear roads for examinees.
“(Students) were not given proper classes (due to COVID-19) and I often saw my child very worried and struggling,” said Seo Kwang-sun, mother of one of the examinees in Seoul.
While schools are alternating between on-offline classes, the education ministry plans a full return to classes from next week to help bridge the education gap and align with the government’s virus strategies Was.
Officials eased social distancing rules starting this month in what they called a first step towards restoring some pre-pandemic normalcy. In allowing large social gatherings in restaurants and longer indoor dining hours, officials cited concerns about the pandemic’s impact on the economy and hoped that improving vaccination rates would reduce hospitalizations and deaths. Even if the virus continues to spread.
But there has been an increase in severe cases and mortality among older people who declined vaccines or whose immunity was reduced after early injections in a massive vaccination campaign that began in late February. Questions were raised whether the decision to loosen virus restrictions was premature.
So far, officials have released no plans to reimpose strict social distancing measures or postpone the reopening of schools.
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