Guangzhou to ensure safe exams amid COVID-19 outbreak

All students in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, who are going to attend the national college entrance examination, will be required to receive health supervision for two weeks and avoid coming to any parties or visiting crowded places before they are allowed to enter into the examination venues, a senior educational official said on Friday.

All the examination staff members are required to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, said Chen Minsheng, deputy director of Guangzhou Bureau of Education, at a news conference in Guangzhou on Friday.

"And the students will also be required to show their negative acid nucleic test results within a week before they attend the examinations and they are asked to wear face masks while taking the examination," said Chen.

Meanwhile relevant examination venues have been required to prepare some spare classrooms for students who have suspected symptoms to attend examinations.

These students will be allowed to attend the examination in spare classrooms after risk assessments by medical experts while the students who have been confirmed to be COVID-19 patients will be arranged to attend the examinations in isolated wards in hospitals, Chen said.

The move aims to ensure safety, fairness, justice and health, he added.

The two exams are important events for Chinese students. Both take place in June.

Chen made the remarks after another five asymptomatic coronavirus carriers were detected in Guangzhou on Friday.

Chen Bin, deputy director of Guangzhou City Health Commission, said as of 2 pm, Friday, Guangzhou has reported four locally transmitted confirmed cases, plus 10 asymptomatic carriers, since the first local confirmed case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Guo was diagnosed in the city's Liwan district on May 21.

Disease prevention and control departments are now doing what they can to prevent and control the spread of the coronavirus in the city, she added.