Strict rules for returning students
ALTHOUGH Shanghai has lowered its emergency response to the novel coronavirus epidemic from the second level to the third, the education sector is still taking strict measures to ensure the safety and health of students and staff.
At the faculty center of East China Normal University, now a designated quarantine hotel, 102 teachers and students from Hubei, the province hardest hit by the virus, had samples taken for nucleic acid and antibody tests over the weekend.
“These include 86 students who returned in the past two days and are in quarantine, and 16 teachers and students who returned earlier and have undergone 14 days of quarantine, but had not taken tests,” said Zhao Linhua, a teacher from the university’s student affairs office.
According to the university, only final-year students and others who need to do research on campus can return.
They need to submit applications at least three days before they arrive, explaining the reason for their return, detailing their itinerary and showing their green health codes.
Those from Hubei need to undergo 14 days quarantine at the center and pass nucleic acid and antibody tests.
“Usually, people have to go to a medical institution for nucleic acid testing, but we have a large number of teachers and students waiting for the test here,” said Jiang Xuesheng, a doctor from the university hospital.
“If we take them to the medical institution, it will take a long time as we have to limit the number of people in each vehicle to reduce the risk of cross infection.”
The university reported the situation to the health commission and center for disease control in Minhang District.
Nine doctors from the nearby Wujing Town community service center were authorized to go to the hotel and take samples for tests on site.
On Saturday morning, each half hour, nine to 11 students went to the ground floor of the hotel to register at a desk before going to one of three tents to have samples taken.
In each tent, there were three doctors in full protective gear. One was responsible for taking nose and throat swabs, one for drawing blood and one helping the others change protective outfits and latex gloves after each teacher or student.
The results are available in 24 to 72 hours.
Yu Zongliang, a masters student majoring in ecologism, said he came back to Shanghai from Xiaogan City of Hubei as he will graduate in next month and needs to give an oral defense for his dissertation.
“I think both the quarantine and tests are necessary as there are asymptomatic carriers,” he said.
“They are responsible measures for both ourselves and the whole society.”
More students will return this week. Other universities in Shanghai are also welcoming back students.
At East China University of Science and Technology, about 1,000 students returned last week.
The university arranged vehicles to pick up students from key affected areas from railway stations and directly sent them to quarantine sites.
Other students had their identities and temperatures checked at the campus gates and must report their temperatures twice a day when living on campus.
A special channel was set up at the gate of Tongji University on Siping Road in Yangpu District with welcoming words for its first batch of students over the weekend.
Each student had to show a code developed by the university’s Shanghai Research Institute for Intelligent Autonomous Systems.
With geographic information, big data and cloud computing technologies, the system analyzes pandemic data around the country and collect students’ personal information, such as daily health conditions, locations and itineraries, to work out return plans for about 40,000 students of the university.
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