585 Students Confirmed Positive in Last 5 Days... Decline After 18 Days

An Average of 117 People per Day... 29.5 Fewer Than Last Week
92.7% of Kindergartens and Schools Nationwide Enter Vacation

On the 21st, high school seniors waiting to receive their vaccines are lined up at the vaccination center set up at the Dongjak-gu Community Sports Center in Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] Over the past five days, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases among kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school students nationwide reached 585. Since the 8th of this month, the number of student cases had been hitting record highs daily before slightly decreasing.

According to the Ministry of Education on the 27th, from the 22nd to the 26th of this month, 585 students were confirmed positive for COVID-19, averaging 117 cases per day. This is a decrease of 29.5 cases compared to the daily average of 146.5 cases over the two days of the 20th and 21st. The number of confirmed cases among school staff was 74, averaging 14.8 per day.

The number of student cases by region over the five days were ▲Gyeonggi 143 ▲Seoul 114 ▲Gyeongnam 55 ▲Busan 53 ▲Daegu 45 ▲Daejeon 39 ▲Chungnam 33 ▲Gangwon 21 ▲Incheon 18 ▲Gyeongbuk 15 ▲Chungbuk 12 ▲Jeju 10 ▲Ulsan 10, etc.

As of 10 a.m. on the day, 92.7% (11,451 schools) of schools nationwide had started their vacation. Schools conducting remote classes accounted for 1.2% (147 schools), while those holding in-person classes were 9.0% (1,146 schools).

In the metropolitan area, 97.5% (7,570 out of 7,768 schools) had started their vacation or similar breaks. This is an increase of more than 3,000 schools compared to last week. Schools conducting remote classes accounted for 1.8% (143 schools), and those holding in-person classes were 0.7% (55 schools).

Over five days, there were 221 new confirmed cases among university students and 21 among university staff. The daily average of confirmed university student cases was 44.2, and for staff, 4.2. This is an increase of 7.7 cases compared to the daily average of 36.5 university student cases on the 20th and 21st. The cumulative number of confirmed university student cases is 3,970, and university staff cases total 382.