(Hong Kong) Schools in Hong Kong will close again after an epidemic of coronavirus cases, the ministry of education said on Friday.
Posted on 10 July 2020 at 759
France Media Agency
The schools will be closed as of Monday, a few days before the normal start of the summer vacation, said Kevin Yeung.
Hong Kong has seen an “exponential increase” in local cases of coronavirus transmission in recent days.
Thus, on Friday, the financial center recorded 38 new confirmed cases, including 32 local contamination.
This resurgence of the virus worries the authorities of this territory of 7.5 million inhabitants which had so far succeeded in stopping the local contaminations.
Daily life had thus resumed a normal course for the inhabitants of the city who were never confined.
Hong Kong was one of the first places in the world to be affected by the coronavirus at the beginning of the year, after its appearance in China.
New epidemic outbreaks began to emerge on Tuesday. Among them are a retirement home where 32 cases were identified and a building with 11 infected people.
At least 21 new infections in the last five days have been classified as being of unknown origin, which means that the authorities are struggling to determine how the disease spreads.
All secondary, primary and kindergarten schools will close from 13 July, said Mr. Yeung.
All the schools in the territory had closed at the end of January, when the coronavirus appeared.
They gradually reopened from May.
On Thursday, Hong Kong strengthened the distancing measures, reducing the number of people who can end up in restaurants and bars to a maximum of eight.
Since the start of the epidemic, Hong Kong has officially listed 1403 patients with COVID – 19, including seven dead.
Residents of the city, traumatized by the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic in 2003, who had 299 dead, wore masks from the start and kept their distance.