While Taiwan's situation is relatively more stable amidst global pandemic outbreak, Tainan’s Bureau of Education exercises precautionary measures to thoroughly prevent the transmission of Covid-19 on campus, aiming at the disease prevention and control goal of “zero transmission in schools.” The Bureau is implementing health measures to help create safe schools, establishing personal health management guidelines for faculties and students, while also ensuring that on-campus supply of epidemic prevention goods is sufficient.
According to Director-General Cheng Hsin-hui of the Bureau of Education, all junior high and elementary schools in Tainan City have sufficient inventory of digital thermometers (both forehead and ear modes), while schools with 500 people or more are equipped with infrared thermal imaging cameras. In addition, the Bureau of Education has prepared 350,000 spare masks for all the students in Tainan, and has distributed 30 metric tons of sodium hypochlorite solution for disinfection. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Education plans to purchase ultraviolet germicidal lamps for 122 elementary schools to strengthen on-campus sanitation.
A number of disease prevention and control measures have also been put in place to prepare for the new upcoming semester: establishing campus access control systems, continuing to implement real-name registration system for outside visitors, requiring mask-wearing, designating waiting zones, and urging all outside visitors to practice self-health management before entering campuses. There are also measures pertaining to personal health management for both teachers and students: children must bring spare masks to schools, parents must pro-actively monitor their children’s health (including taking temperature and recording it in the parent communication book), and teachers must also take the initiative to understand students’ health status and make sure that students who are sick do not attend school.
For more updated campus-wide COVID-19 prevention and control information and measures, please visit the Bureau of Education’s designated webpage: http://www.tn.edu.tw/2019-nCoV/Index.html.