SINGAPORE, May 18 — Singapore Polytechnic (SP) will move all lessons online for the next two weeks starting today after two students tested positive for Covid-19, a spokesman for the school said late yesterday.
All tutorials and lectures had already been planned to be conducted online until May 28, barring some necessary classes which were to continue in school.
With yesterday’s change, all remaining laboratory and practical classes at SP will be conducted online if suitable, or deferred till a later date, the spokesperson said in a statement.
“We will do our utmost to support our students’ continued learning during this period,” the spokesman added.
The move comes a day after some laboratory and practical classes were already moved online or deferred following news that a second-year student from SP’s Media, Arts and Design School was confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus.
Among the two new students who have been infected was a first-year student from the School of Computing.
He was last on campus on Friday afternoon and began developing symptoms at home that evening.
The other is an adult learner enrolled in a part-time Continuing Education and Training course from the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
The student was last on campus on Friday evening, when there would generally be fewer people in school, the spokesman said. The student was asymptomatic while on campus and developed symptoms the next day.
“At this point, there is no evidence to show that any of these two cases and (the second-year student) are linked,” the spokesman said.
He added that SP is providing support to the students and areas of the campus visited by the two students have been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.
The Health Ministry has issued quarantine orders to students or staff who have been in close contact with the two students.
“As an additional precautionary measure, SP has also issued a leave of absence to the students’ other classmates and contacts. We have advised all students concerned to monitor their health closely,” the spokesman said.
Singapore on Sunday announced that all primary and secondary schools, as well as junior colleges, Millennia Institute and special education schools, will move to full home-based learning from Wednesday as part of tightened measures in the light of the rapid rise in community cases recently.
Two primary schools — Fuchun Primary School and Frontier Primary School — moved their classes online yesterday, ahead of the scheduled date, after a pupil and a teacher from each of the schools tested positive.
A different set of tightened measures applied to institutes of higher learning, including polytechnics and universities. For these, in-person sessions such as labs, practicals and final-year projects are allowed to continue so long as the necessary safety measures are in place. — TODAY
