S. Korea puts back school re-openings, China to postpone university entrance exams

South Korea on Tuesday canceled the planned re-opening of schools next week because of dangers from the coronavirus, and will instead launch online classes from April 9, while also delaying its annual college entrance exams.

Seoul has managed to bring down its rate of new infections to about 100 or fewer a day, but clusters of cases in churches, hospitals and nursing homes, as well as imported cases, are still emerging, Reuters said. Starting on Wednesday, everyone arriving from abroad will have to spend two weeks in quarantine, under new rules aimed at curbing imported cases.

Authorities have postponed the beginning of the new school semester three times from early March to April 6, and have decided to do so again, given the persistence of the outbreak.

In China,  the annual national “gaokao” university entrance examinations will be postponed by one month to July 7 and 8, state television reported on Tuesday.