Maris Stella High student has COVID-19, says principal in letter

Maris Stella High School. (SCREENCAP: Google Maps)
Maris Stella High School. (SCREENCAP: Google Maps)

SINGAPORE — A Maris Stella High student has tested positive for COVID-19, said the school’s principal in a letter disseminated to parents on Friday morning (27 March).

The letter, seen by Yahoo News Singapore, was signed off by its principal Woo Soo Min and dated Thursday.

In it, Woo said that the student is linked to a confirmed case outside of school and had not travelled during the March school holidays.

She noted that he was well when he was last seen in the school campus – at 80 Bartley Road – on 13 March. Since then, he has not been in school, participated in school activities and interacted with his schoolmates.

“As there is no risk of infection, there is no need to issue ‘leave of absence’ to any staff and student,” Woo added.

Authorities announced earlier this month that all students and staff members of schools, preschools and student care centres who returned from overseas on or after 14 March – the start of the March school holidays – will be given a 14-day leave of absence.

Woo said that precautionary measures will continue to be implemented at the school to ensure “a safe environment for teaching and learning”.

Yahoo News Singapore has reached out to the all-boys school for comment.

The school is one of several educational institutions with at least one student or staff member testing positive for the virus, including Victoria Junior College, Singapore Institute of Technology, Raffles Institution, Fengshan PAP Community Foundation (PCF) Sparkletots preschool and Dover Court International School.

Both the preschool – linked to 20 of 683 COVID-19 cases here – and the international school – linked to four cases – were identified as new clusters by the Ministry of Health on Wednesday night.

On Friday, the Ministry of Education announced that all primary schools, secondary schools, junior colleges and centralised institutes will conduct one day of home-based learning per week from April, as part of additional measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

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