MOH Testing 6,500 Students & Staff Members From SP After 3 Students Tested Positive for COVID-19

These days, it’s bad news after bad news. 

This time, it’s yet another school that has to be mass tested for COVID-19 after some of its students tested positive. 

SP Community to be Tested for COVID-19

From today (19 May) onwards, around 6,500 students, staff and food court vendors at Singapore Polytechnic (SP) will be tested for COVID-19 after three of its students tested positive earlier.

Having been on campus on or after 29 April, these 6,500 people from five schools in SP are part of the group that have been prioritised to be swabbed. 

The five schools include the School of Computing, the Media, Arts & Design School (MAD), the School of Business, and the School of Mechanical & Aeronautical Engineering. 

The School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering is also part of the five schools mentioned, though only students on Continuing Education and Training (CET) courses and programmes will have to be tested. 

The testing will take place at SP’s Sports Arena at the Dover Road Campus, and is expected to last a few days. 

In a statement by SP, it said that while there was presently no evidence to show that the three cases were linked, “given the three positive cases, as well as the locations and proximity of their schools in SP’s campus, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has decided to take an additional precautionary measure to reduce the risk of transmission within our campus”. 

According to MOH, the decision of whether the remaining SP community will have to be tested will be made after the first round of testing has been completed, and the overall risk level is assessed. In total, the SP community has more than 14,000 students and staff. 

The 3 Current Cases of COVID-19 From SP

Currently, there are three students from SP who have tested positive for the coronavirus.

The first student, a second-year student from MAD, tested positive for COVID-19 on 15 May. According to SP, he was last on campus on 11 May.

The second is a 16-year-old boy, a first-year student from the School of Computing. On Monday (17 May), he tested positive for the B1617 variant of the virus that was first reported in India. He had been on campus last in the afternoon on 14 May, and begun developing symptoms later that evening at home. 

The third is a 32-year-old IT engineer, an adult learner enrolled part-time in the CET course from the School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering. He also tested positive for the virus on Monday. He was last on campus in the evening on 14 May, and developed symptoms the next day. 

Cautionary Measures Taken by SP

After the first COVID-19 case was discovered in SP, the school announced that lab and practical lessons for all second-year students from MAD would be conducted online or postponed to a later date. 

In addition, the school planned to conduct all lectures and tutorials online from 17 May to 28 May, with the exception of necessary lab and practical sessions, as well as final year projects. 

After the next two cases had been discovered, SP announced that all lessons, including the remaining lab and practical lessons would be conducted online or postponed to a later date.

The campus premises have been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, while classmates of the three cases have been issued a leave of absence. 

To know more about COVID-19 testing, watch this video to the end:

Feature Image: Facebook (Singapore Polytechnic)