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SINGAPORE: All preschool teaching and non-teaching staff will undergo a COVID-19 test beginning Friday (May 15) to reduce the risk of transmission when centers resume full services.
About 30,000 preschool and early intervention staff, including teachers, principals, program staff, administrative staff, cooks and cleaners, will take the swab tests in one sitting, a spokesman for the First Development Agency said Thursday. Childhood (ECDA).
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“After preschool services are fully resumed, we will consider a risk-based assessment system to protect children and staff,” said ECDA.
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As part of the “breaker” measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, all preschools, kindergartens, and student care centers suspended their general services on April 8.
They remain open to provide limited services to students whose parents are in essential services such as medical care.
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About 10,000 children, or 5 percent of all children enrolled in preschool in Singapore have used those limited services during the circuit interruption period, ECDA said previously.
The breaker period, originally scheduled to end on May 4, has been extended through June 1.
New updates on the approach to re-opening preschools will be announced “in due course,” said the ECDA spokesperson.
Preschool staff have been prioritized for testing because of their close and constant contact with children in a closed environment, ECDA said.
This is part of increased monitoring to “provide assurances to preschool staff and families to support the gradual opening of general services,” the spokesperson added.
“We recognize that these precautionary tests will bring inconvenience to preschoolers and staff, and we seek their understanding and support to safeguard the health and well-being of our preschool community,” said the spokesperson.
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The tests are the latest precautionary measures to be implemented in preschools to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among children.
The above measures include travel statements for staff, children and visitors, health checks, suspension of group and community activities, visitor restriction, and safe distancing measures.
All staff, as well as children who are at least two years old, must also wear masks.
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There have been several cases of infections in preschoolers.
On April 13, ECDA announced that E-Bridge Preschool’s Jurong branch would be temporarily closed after a child tested positive for COVID-19. The boy tested positive after a family member contracted the virus.
On April 6, a Sparkletots preschool from the PAP Community Foundation (PCF) in Hougang closed for 10 days after a teacher providing intervention programs to a group of children at the center tested positive for the virus.
All PCF centers in Singapore were previously closed for four days beginning March 26, after more than 10 employees of the PCF Sparkletots center in Fengshan tested positive for COVID-19.
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