Jointly reported by:
Chloe Chan Po Yi Jr1Z(3)
Chloe Eu Ji Chen Sr2A
Wong Tze Sin Sr3ScA
On the 26th of April, Head of the Discipline Department, Ms Lim Siew Lian held a meeting to brief on the handling and procedures on reporting confirmed Covid-19 cases to the Authority, via Zoom video platform. The meeting started off by encouraging students or teachers who suffer from various symptoms to take the PCR test instead of the RTK antigen test for a more precise result. Students who are diagnosed and confirmed with Covid-19 have to inform their own Form Teacher as soon as possible, while teachers who are confirmed infected with Covid-19 have to inform direct to Ms Lim. Students and teachers infected have to comprehend the source of infection. Subsequently, the Form Teachers ought to inform the relevant teachers in charge. The Discipline Department will process the collected information data of infected students and trace the history of close contacts. There is School Crisis Management Team setup (the Team) taking care of the whole process.
A meeting has been held and the persons-in-charge were appointed, ranging from Discipline to Academic Teachers but with the Discipline Department to take the leading role. The personnel in charge will have to contact the patient, and track down all the following close contacts. The personnel must also contact close contacts’ parents. Parents will be informed to keep their children in the house until they receive notice from the relevant District Ministry of Health (MOH) regarding their swab test results. However, parents are not prohibited from taking their child for a swab test other than from the MOH designated clinic. Meanwhile, the Academic Department will confirm classmates in close contact with the patient through their Form Teacher. The teachers then must handover a list of the close contacts’ names to the office of the Discipline.
After that, the Discipline Department will notify the assigned MOH clinic about the close contacts along with their personal information, such as their name, identity card number, etc. The School Secretariat will also inform the people of Group B and Group C. The people in these groups are at risk of being infected, so special arrangements will be made depending on the situation. The people in Group B are most likely to be students. Naturally, Group C will be the whole class. The teacher in charge of the case will put out a notice for the Form Teacher and make sure all other teachers pay close attention to the patient.
The School Hostel supervisors are responsible for the safety of all students living within the hostel. The supervisors are mandated to keep in touch with their parents from time to time for more updates. The General Affairs Department is obliged to disinfect and sterilize the school compound. It is mandatory for the Team to comply with the SOP and instructions issued by the MOH at all times. The Covid-19 virus has never been this close to us. All this adversity that seems so far away are now disrupting our lives. The teachers are to offer 100% of their effort to curb the spread in order to keep all of us safe. It is also vital for everyone to give fullest support to the School.
