SINGAPORE — With a Victoria Junior College (VJC) teacher testing positive for the novel coronavirus, the school will be stepping up measures to prevent the virus from spreading further, such as by temporarily scrapping all co-curricular activities (CCAs) and thoroughly disinfecting the premises where she had been.

The move comes as the Government announced on Friday (Feb 7) that Singapore is raising its disease outbreak response level from Dorscon Yellow to Orange in light of several cases of local transmission in which the patients had no recent travel history to China and the authorities do not know the source of the virus.

The VJC teacher is one of these cases. The 42-year-old is now warded at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases after she reported symptoms on Feb 2 and was admitted to Parkway East Hospital three days later. Test results came back positive on Feb 6.

The teacher has not interacted with her colleagues or students after experiencing symptoms.

She has not been in school the entire week: She was on medical leave due to fever and was last in school on Jan 31.

She lives on Elias Road in Pasir Ris and had visited Changi Airport and the Singapore Zoo.

Education Minister Ong Ye Kung said that he had spoken with the teacher on the phone on Friday evening.

"She felt bad about what happened, but I assured her it was not her fault," Mr Ong said in a Facebook post.

"What we are doing are necessary precautions to keep our schools safe. I also wished her speedy recovery."

Some parents have suggested suspending schools, Mr Ong said, but he believes this is a "drastic move that will disrupt life for many families".

It is also not realistic to expect older children to stay home the whole time school is closed, he added.

"Should there be wide community spread — which we hope will not happen — and given all the measures we have taken, schools may actually be one of the safest places for our students."

Ms Liew Wei Li, director of schools at the Ministry of Education (MOE), said at a press conference that all schools will suspend all external and inter-school activities until the end of the March school holidays with immediate effect, after which MOE will review the decision again.

“This will include national school games and learning journeys. The aim is to reduce inter-mingling among schools and across schools, and to reduce our students’ prolonged exposure to crowds to mitigate the risk of transmission,” she said.

There will also be a new hygiene regime in schools, she added.

At the primary school level, teachers will take pupils to the restroom to ensure that they wash their hands with soap and water before breaks and recess periods. Teachers will remind those at the secondary school level to do the same.

Ms Liew said: “Next week, even as we commemorate Total Defence Day, we will be instituting a protocol for our students to clean up their eating surface after they have had their meal in the canteen, in consideration of the person who might be coming after them.”

Since the start of the outbreak, schools have been ramping up social distancing measures to deal with the escalating viral situation that has affected 33 people in Singapore, because students have been identified as a vulnerable group.

This includes cancelling mass assembly events, having a mandatory 14-day leave of absence for those returning from China, as well as organising CCAs in smaller groups.

MEASURES TAKEN BY VJC

MOE is putting in place extra precautionary measures to stem any possible spread owing to the case of the VJC teacher, Ms Liew said.

Teaching colleagues and students who had been in close contact with her will be given a 14-day leave of absence since their last day of contact, while the staff room, pantry, and the teaching rooms that the teacher had been in have been disinfected.

“There will be smaller group sizes for teaching. For instance, in a lecture theatre, they will be seated in an alternate seating arrangement,” she said, adding that CCAs in VJC will be suspended for two weeks.

“We will take similar measures for other schools if it happens to have cases in the other schools, moving ahead. This way, we can continue on with meaningful learning even as we keep our students and our staff safe."