SINGAPORE: Educators were urged on Saturday to tackle some “laborious” precautions necessary to help protect students from the SARS virus ahead of the reopening of Singapore secondary schools.
The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) “will not go away overnight,” said Minister of Education Teo Chee Hean. “And we cannot be isolating ourselves forever.”
All schools through junior colleges were closed on March 27 affecting 600,000 students.
The junior colleges were the first to reopen on April 9, followed by sanitised secondary schools April 14 and primary schools two days later.
“We are now better able to cope with SARS,” Teo said. “But the environment has changed and we will all have to play our part, make the necessary adjustments and educate our students how to cope with good hygienic practices, sensible precautions and much needed social responsibility,” he told a meeting of principals, department heads and others.
“Some of the measures are laborious and may even be inconvenient,” Teo said, “but they are necessary.”
The pneumonia-like virus has claimed nine lives in the city-state while the number of diagnosed cases has hit 140, the world’s fourth-highest.
Governments have tightened their defences against SARS, with China ordering its travel agents to stop all tours to Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore two days after Kuala Lumpur imposed a temporary ban on Chinese visitors. Thailand also introduced stringent checks on visitors from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam.
The US has widened its definition of people at risk of SARS, saying anyone who passed through an airport in an affected country should watch for symptoms of the respiratory illness.
Two cruises scheduled to depart from Singapore this weekend have been cancelled after two Indian employees working on board the luxury liner SuperStar Virgo were hospitalized in Singapore and Malaysia.
The crew remained on the vessel after it docked here on Friday because Singapore-based Star Cruises had suspended all shore leave in SARS-affected areas and the vessel is being disinfected.
The male with a high fever was admitted to Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), where he is under observation. The first, a 26-year-old woman, was taken off the ship when it reached Langkawai on Monday a day after it left Singapore. Malaysian authorities said she was a probable SARS case.
More people in Singapore and Hong Kong are worried about SARS than the state of the economy, job-related issues or the war on Iraq, a survey by ACNielsen showed.—dpa