Seoul schools go back online over virus fears

SEOUL AFP, 25 Aug, 2020-  South Korea on Tuesday ordered all schools and kindergartens in the greater Seoul region to switch to online classes as authorities battle multiple 
coronavirus clusters.   

The country’s “trace, test and treat” approach to curbing the virus has been held up as a global model, but it is now trying to contain several outbreaks, mostly linked to Protestant churches.   

South Korea reported 280 new infections on Tuesday, taking the country’s total to 17,945.   

The numbers are low in global terms but represent the South’s 12th consecutive day of triple-digit increases after several weeks with numbers generally in the 30s and 40s.   
Most of the new cases have been centred in the greater Seoul region, home to half the country’s 
52 million people.   

Authorities are now scrambling to tighten social distancing rules and said that schools and kindergartens in Seoul, Incheon and neighbouring Gyeonggi province will switch to online classes from Wednesday until September 11.   

 “The alarming emergence of mass infections since August is turning up as infections of our students and staff members,” education minister Yoo Eun-hae told reporters.   
Nearly 200 students and school staff had been infected with the virus in the past two weeks, she said.