Wuhan's final-year students back to class

After taking online courses for more than two months, Huang Guanzhong, a senior at Wuhan High School, was thrilled to finally return to school for the new semester on Wednesday.

"I have never been so excited to go to school, and seeing classmates and teachers face-to-face makes me more eager to study," he said.

A total of 57,800 seniors at 121 high schools and secondary vocational schools in Wuhan, who are expected to take the national college entrance exam in July, returned to schools on Wednesday, according to the city's education bureau.

Wearing a mask and gloves, Huang said he is taking necessary precautions to ensure that he is safe from the COVID-19 pandemic at school.

Tong Bin, director of student affairs at Wuhan High School, said 460 seniors returned to the school on Wednesday.

The school has installed infrared thermometers at the front gate and students have their temperatures checked again before they enter the classroom, he said.

All students, teachers and staff had nucleic acid tests for COVID-19 before they could return to school, Tong said.

The school has arranged for students to enter and leave at staggered intervals to avoid large gatherings of students, he said.

Each class has been divided into two and each classroom has less than 30 students, he added.

Chen Xiang, a senior, said: "It almost felt surreal that we can return to school now, since not so long ago the city was severely hit by the COVID-19 epidemic."

The school has informed students and parents about the epidemic prevention and control measures and she will closely follow them, she said.

"The epidemic changed my life in the past three months, being kept in my home and taking online courses," she said. "It also makes me cherish the last two months at school and hopefully I will achieve good results in the national college entrance examination and go to my dream university."

Primary and secondary schools in Wuhan can shorten the summer vacation to make up for school time lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Xia Chunyin, deputy director of the Wuhan Education Bureau.

They can also extend school time by one extra day each week and by one extra class each day after the new semester starts, he said at a news conference.

Li Tao, deputy secretary-general of the Wuhan government, said the schools should conduct daily sterilization and disinfection on campus, especially at classrooms, canteens, dormitories and restrooms.

They should have on-site disease prevention and control experts and doctors and check the health condition of all students and teachers every day, he said.

Schools should make thorough contingency plans in case any students show symptoms of fever or cough in class, he added.