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Coronavirus: Hong Kong pupils return to school en masse for first time in months as face-to-face classes resume
- Children in seven grades are resuming classes this week, with the rest expected to return to school next Tuesday
- Antivirus measures have been put in place, including hand sanitiser dispensers and an ultraviolet device to disinfect books
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More than 300,000 Hong Kong primary and secondary school pupils finally met their peers and teachers for the first time since the new academic year began, as the opening phase of face-to-face class resumptions kicked off amid a sustained decline in coronavirus infections.
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Children in Primary One, Five and Six; Form One, Five and Six; and kindergarten K3 returned to campuses for half-day classes on Wednesday morning with infection control and social-distancing measures in place.
They will be followed by pupils in Primary Two through Four, Form Two through Four, and kindergarten K1 and K2, who are expected to return to the classroom from next Tuesday.
Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung said Wednesday’s in-person class resumption was “mostly smooth”, while also urging pupils and parents to maintain good hygiene at schools as the coronavirus pandemic was still ongoing.
Schools in Hong Kong had suspended in-person classes for more than four months starting in early February, only briefly resuming for about one month before they were again forced to stop as the city’s third wave of Covid-19 infections ramped up in early July.
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