Starting from the 1st of next month, students confirmed to have COVID-19 will be advised to refrain from attending school for 5 days and their absences during this period will be counted as attendance.
The Ministry of Education announced on the 29th that the revised "COVID-19 School Quarantine Guidelines" will be applied in schools from the 1st of next month. This revision follows the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters' (CDSCH) decision to remove the 7-day quarantine obligation for confirmed COVID-19 cases starting next month and to downgrade the COVID-19 crisis alert level to "caution," leading to changes in quarantine measures.
According to the revised guidelines, the 7-day quarantine obligation for students confirmed with COVID-19 will be lifted. Instead, confirmed students are advised to isolate and refrain from attending school for 5 days.
The Ministry of Education decided to treat the absence during the recommended isolation period as an excused absence counted as attendance to help students recover their health.
If a confirmed student wishes to take exams at school, they must wear a mask at all times and minimize contact with other students and staff while attending school. Schools are required to provide separate examination rooms to support confirmed students in taking their exams.
The use of the self-diagnosis app introduced after COVID-19 will be discontinued starting from the 1st of next month. Since the second semester of 2020, students have been using the self-diagnosis app developed by the Ministry of Education to check for suspected COVID-19 symptoms every morning.
From next month, if students believe they are at risk of infection, they can contact the school in advance and visit a medical institution for testing. If they submit the test results to the school, their absence will be treated as an excused absence counted as attendance.
Regarding home study, the Ministry of Education still considers it as an off-campus experiential learning reason and will recognize it as attendance. Since May 2020, when the infectious disease crisis alert was at "caution" level or higher during the COVID-19 spread, the Ministry has recognized attendance for students whose parents kept them at home due to infection concerns and conducted home study.
The recommendation to wear masks indoors will continue to apply in schools as well. Mask-wearing is advised when symptoms are suspected or in situations where many people are gathered closely and activities that generate droplets are frequent. Given that the COVID-19 crisis alert remains in effect, the Ministry of Education will maintain basic quarantine measures such as ventilation during classes and temporary observation rooms for the time being.
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