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The Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) announced today (May 1) that St Teresa Secondary School in Sheung Shing Street, Homantin, Kowloon would suspend classes from tomorrow to May 8 after the Department of Health has verified one of its students was suspected to have contracted atypical pneumonia (AP).
An EMB spokesman said, "The Secondary Two student went back to school when her class was resumed on April 28 but has been on sick leave since the following day (April 29). As a precautionary measure, the school will suspend classes from tomorrow to May 8 and resume classes on May 9."
"During class suspension, the health condition of all the staff members and students of the school will be closely monitored by the Department of Health and the school will step up cleansing and disinfecting measures to ensure its environmental hygiene condition."
To prevent the spread of AP on school premises, the EMB has introduced a new measure on April 28 that in addition to confirmed cases, if a staff member or student of a school is suspected to have contracted AP, the school has to suspend classes for 10 days.
The spokesman explained that the 10-day period would be counted from the first day of sick leave taken by the concerned staff member or student. However, if the suspected case turns out to be non-AP, the Department of Health will inform the Bureau to arrange resumption of classes as soon as practicable.
Information on the schools which have suspended classes due to staff members or students suspected or confirmed to have contracted AP has been uploaded to a daily AP bulletin on the EMB homepage (http://www.emb.gov.hk).
End/Thursday, May 1, 2003
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