Guangzhou tests all students before return to classes

Third-grade students, teachers and logistics personnel at junior and senior high schools in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, are tested on campus for coronavirus before they resume classwork on Monday.

Students will form lines, spacing themselves 1.5 metres apart, at school gates and provide basic information about their living situation before being tested.

Testing for the students, teachers, logistics staff, security guards, chefs, cleaners, horticulturists and other personnel, has also begun in districts of the southern metropolis, whose population exceeds 16 million.

Test results will be available within 24 hours, said Liu Xue, a doctor from Red Cross Hospital in Guangzhou’s Luogang district. The hospital is in charge of administering tests at eight schools.

People who have negative results will be allowed to return to school to prepare for the national entrance examination for universities and colleges, as well as entrance exams for senior high schools.

Both exams, normally scheduled for June, have been postponed to July this year.

“Anyone with a positive result will be sent to a designated hospital for isolation, observation and treatment,” Liu said.

A junior high school Grade 3 student surnamed Ye said it is really pleasant to resume class and meet classmates and teachers again after school being suspended for months.

“It is understandable to have coronavirus tests before returning to school since the fight against Covid-19 has not been completed yet,” Ye was quoted as saying by Yangcheng Evening News.

A junior high school student’s mother, surnamed Zhong, said asking to test everyone is a responsible move for both the school and society.