Classes to resume for Wuhan students in May

High schools in Wuhan are preparing to welcome final-year students back to classes on May 6 as the COVID-19 epidemic ebbs in the city.

Teachers and staff at Wuhan High School held an epidemic control and prevention drill on Monday, going through the whole process from entering to leaving the school.

Yang Dingcheng, principal of the school, said students need to get their temperatures checked at the front gate. Those with high temperatures will be rechecked three times, and if their temperatures are still high, they will be sent to hospital. Their temperatures will also be checked again before they enter the classroom.

The school has divided each class into two smaller ones to make sure each classroom has less than 30 students, he said.

All schoolteachers and staff have undergone nucleic acid tests, and the students have started a 14-day observation before they go back to school to make sure they are healthy, he said.

The school has prepared an adequate amount of protective equipment. Each student will be given two masks every day, he said.

Students will eat their lunch in classrooms with staff delivering food to them. They are required to keep at least 1.5 meters away from each other, he said.

If any students were to show symptoms of cold or fever after the new semester starts, school doctors would examine their situation and inform their parents at once, he added.

Guo Hua, deputy principal at Wuhan Foreign Languages School, said the school has conducted sterilization and disinfection on the whole campus twice and will do so again before May 6.

The school has a sufficient amount of epidemic control and prevention equipment including masks, gloves, protective suits, hand sanitizer, medical alcohol and thermometers, he said.

It has also informed all students about the control measures and made thorough contingency plans in case any students show symptoms of fever or cough in class, he added.

Tang Zizhe, a senior student at Wuhan High School, said he is excited about returning to school and will strictly follow its epidemic control and prevention measures.

"These measures are very necessary and offer us assurance that we are safe at the school," he said.

No new confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases were reported in Hubei province on Sunday, the provincial health commission said on Monday.

The province reported no new deaths from COVID-19 on Sunday and has no COVID-19 patients in hospitals, it said.

Liu Kun contributed to this story.