South Korea is closing schools and switching back to remote learning in the greater capital area as the country counted its 12th straight day of triple-digit daily increases in coronavirus cases.
Education Minister Yoo Eun Hae said today that at least 193 students and teachers were found infected over the past two weeks in the Seoul metropolitan region, where a viral surge has threatened to erase the country's hard-won epidemiological gains.
South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 280 new patients, pushing the 12-day total to 3,175. The country's caseload is now at 17,945, including 310 deaths.
Yoo said most children at kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools will receive online classes at least until September 11. High-school seniors will continue to go to school so their studies are not disrupted ahead of the crucial national college exams.
The country delayed the start of the school year for weeks because of an outbreak in the southeast in spring before proceeding with phased reopenings beginning in May.
Keeping schools shut are a difficult political decision int a country where teenagers are thrown into hyper-competitive school environments because graduating from elite universities is seen as crucial to career prospects.
“The priority is to quickly stem the spread of transmissions and stabilize the situation, if only to hold the December 3 national college entrance exam as planned without disruption,'' Yoo said in a news conference.
The KCDC said 221 of the new cases came from the greater Seoul area, home to half of the country's 51 million people, where churches emerged as major sources of infections before authorities shut them amid tightened social distancing restrictions. Infections have also been linked to schools, nurseries and other places.
The country since Sunday has banned larger gatherings, shut down nightspots and churches and removed fans from professional sports nationwide. Officials say the country could be forced to elevate social distancing restrictions if the virus doesn't slow after this week, measures that would batter an already weak economy. -AP

Seniors sit for a nationwide test on their scholastic abilities at a classroom of Dorim High School in Incheon, west of Seoul, on July 22.

South Korea shuts schools, 193 students and teachers infected