Coronavirus Hong Kong: schools must have 90 per cent student vaccination rate to resume full-day, in-person classes

All teachers and staff must also have received at least two doses of coronavirus vaccine to return to campus, education minister Kevin Yeung says

Authorities also exploring setting up special exam centres for students who would otherwise not be able to take their university entrance tests for pandemic-related reasons

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Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on Wednesday urged parents to get their children vaccinated so full-day, in-person classes could resume. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 11:55am, 23 Mar 2022Updated: 10:20pm, 23 Mar 2022

Schools must ensure 90 per cent of their students have received at least two vaccine shots against Covid-19 if they hope to resume whole-day lessons in the classroom next month, Hong Kong’s education minister has announced.

Confirming a previous Post report, Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung also said on Wednesday that all teachers and school staff must have received at least two vaccine doses before returning to campus, unless they had a valid medical exemption.

“If schools cannot attain an overall 90 per cent vaccination rate, [individual] classes which achieve the target are still allowed to resume full-day lessons and activities,” Yeung said at a daily coronavirus press briefing.

“If individual students have taken the two doses, schools can still arrange non-academic activities [for them], such as music and sports, in the second half of the school day.”

After beginning summer break at the start of the month, schools will be permitted to resume face-to-face classes on April 19 at the earliest under a government road map for relaxing pandemic-control restrictions announced earlier this week. Those that do not meet the 90 per cent vaccination threshold will still be allowed to resume in-person learning, but only for half the day.