No child with Covid-19 seriously ill but situation worrying: Chan

Several children who have been infected with Covid-19 have mild symptoms, and none of them is seriously ill, said Education Minister Chan Chun Sing yesterday.

Still, the situation is worrying because new strains of the coronavirus are much more virulent and seem to attack younger children, he added.

"This is an area of concern for all of us... The sharp rise in the number of community cases today requires us to significantly reduce our movements and interactions in the coming days.

"We are watching this very closely because we do not think it is a random thing that just happened in one day or so," he said at a press conference by the multi-ministry task force (MTF) on Covid-19.

Associate Professor Kenneth Mak, the Health Ministry's director of medical services, was not present at yesterday's press conference.

However, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said he had spoken to Prof Mak before the briefing, and added: "He did mention... the B1617 strain appears to affect children more, so you'll notice that for schools, the response has been different compared with last year."

He said that the Ministry of Education (MOE) has acted quickly to get schools with pupils who had tested positive for Covid-19 to shift to home-based learning, and to test the entire school for the virus.

"That is also a precaution that has been put in recently, in view of (the) different behaviour of this strain of virus."

Several pupils have been testing positive for the coronavirus in recent days, with many linked to the cluster at the Learning Point tuition centre in Parkway Centre.

Other tuition centres that had students who tested positive for Covid-19 include The Learning Lab in United Square and HCL Education Centre at Katong V.

Mr Chan said: "To our knowledge, all the students who are either under quarantine or who have been confirmed to have contracted the virus - a few of them have mild symptoms but no one is seriously ill at this point in time.

"As to how this virus may affect the children differently from the other strains, I think that is best answered by the medical fraternity and we are certainly keeping a close watch on this."

The MOE announced on Saturday that seven primary schools with pupils who tested positive for Covid-19 will shift to home-based learning from today.

Yesterday, it said all primary and secondary schools, junior colleges and the Millennia Institute, as well as special education schools, will switch to home-based learning from Wednesday.