Government not ruling out school closures to delay spread of Covid-19: Lawrence Wong

SINGAPORE — The Government is not ruling out school closures to stem the spread of the Covid-19 disease, although it will continue to study the effectiveness of doing so before taking such measures, said Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong on Friday (March 13).

Mr Wong was responding to questions from the media at a multi-ministry taskforce press briefing on whether the Government will consider shutting schools, in light of new measures to restrict travellers coming into Singapore. A travel ban has been extended to new travellers from Italy, France, Spain and Germany in the last two weeks, following an increase in imported Covid-19 cases from European countries.

Mr Wong said that the evidence of whether closing schools will be effective in breaking the transmission of Covid-19 is still not clear.

“We will not rule out (school closure) but we need to clarify... the effectiveness of school closures and how this would potentially break or slow down the transmission chain before putting in place a measure like that,” he said.

Mr Wong’s comments follow those of Education Minister Ong Ye Kung’s last Friday where he said there was a possibility of schools closing here if the situation worsens.

In an interview with media outlet CNBC, Mr Ong had said if the number of cases starts to rise and there is a “big risk of importation”, there may be a need to implement social distancing — “which may have to include suspending of schools”.

Mr Wong pointed out at the press conference that compared to the normal influenza season where many children get infected, fewer children have been infected by Covid-19 so far.

However, Mr Wong cautioned that it is also not clear if there were fewer children infected because the symptoms are so mild and authorities are not picking up on them, or if it was because children are not as prone to being infected.

“If it is the first reason, then we have reason to be concerned,” said Mr Wong, who added that infected children may then pass on the virus to more vulnerable people at home such as their parents and grandparents.

“If it’s the second scenario, then school closures are not the right measure,” he said.

He added that the Government was still studying the evidence and data and will adopt measures on the advice of experts.

Health Minister Gan Kim Yong, who is co-chair of the taskforce, said that even if schools were to be closed here, such a measure will be introduced with other measures to facilitate social distancing.

“Some of these social distancing measures are already progressively being put in place. So we do not think that it is necessary to have a big bang, everything, put together for two weeks, three weeks, then after that everything is lifted,” he said.

“In time to come, we may step up measures which include school closures (but) we are not there yet.”