<Anchor> The
government is promoting a plan to conduct preemptive tests before school starts twice a week from the new semester.
We decided to distribute the self-test kit for free, but it is not compulsory.
Reporter Kim Kyung-hee reports.
<Reporter>
From next week to the end of March, the corona self-test kit will be provided to 6.92 million people nationwide, including kindergarten students, elementary, middle and high school students, and faculty.
Students are asked to check for infection at home twice a week on Sunday and Wednesday evenings before going to school.
Faculty members do not have enough kits, so it is conducted once a week.
The test results are entered into the self-diagnosis app and shared with the school. If positive, PCR test is required.
[Eun-hye Yoo/Deputy Prime Minister: We recommend as a way to create a safe school together by pre-testing the maximum safety devices with a self-inspection kit.] This
is a recommendation, not an obligation, so you can go to school without testing.
For younger students who have no symptoms or are reluctant to be tested, testing may be avoided.
Parents' reactions are mixed.
[Lee Eun-kyung / Parents of kindergarten students and elementary school students: I think it will be difficult to test at home.
Because I have the feeling that the children are a little sick, so I strongly reject it...
.]
[Parents (5th graders
of elementary school): I haven't been to school properly for too long, so I think that if I can have a normal new semester by taking tests like this, I can do the test twice (a week).]
We were concerned that we might suffer from the tally of the test situation, as well as the encouragement of the test.
The Ministry of Education plans to deploy an additional 70,000 quarantine personnel and 1,600 nurse license holders to support school self-quarantine quarantine.