Seoul reports jump in student COVID-19 cases

A total of 1,450 students from kindergarten to high school tested positive for COVID-19 in Seoul last week, up 360 from 1,090 a week earlier, after the full resumption of in-person classes, the city's education office said Tuesday.

The increase came in the second week since all kindergartens and elementary, middle and high schools returned to full-fledged in-person classes on Nov. 22 in line with the country's "living with COVID-19" scheme aimed at gradually bringing the country back to pre-pandemic normalcy.

Separately, 104 school officials also tested positive last week, the office said.

Of the total cases involving students and officials, 559, or 36 percent, were household transmissions, while 497, or 32 percent, were cases with unidentified infection routes. Transmissions in schools also accounted for 388 cases, or 25 percent, up from the previous week's 19.1 percent.

By age group, elementary school students took up the biggest share of infections at 55.3 percent, followed by middle school students at 25 percent, 10th and 11th graders at high schools at 9.8 percent, kindergarteners at 7.9 percent and high school seniors at 2 percent.

The daily attendance rate of a total of 824,400 elementary, middle and high school students in Seoul stood at 84.2 percent last week, according to the education office.

The education office allows schools to change their attendance policies flexibly considering the virus situation and class density. (Yonhap)