Unvaccinated students with infected family allowed to go to school

South Korea will change its policy on students’ going to school and Covid-19 testing system from Monday.

Even if parents or siblings living together is infected with Covid-19, students will be allowed to go to school regardless of whether he or she is vaccinated or not beginning Monday. Up until Sunday, only a fully vaccinated student was allowed to go to school in the event a family member living together gets infected, while an unvaccinated student was prohibited from going to school for seven days. However, even an unvaccinated student can go to school from Monday. A ‘fully vaccinated person’ refers to an individual who finished the third shot or took the second dose at least 14 days but no more than 90 days ago.

The government, however, recommends that students whose family members are infected take the PCR test within three days and have the rapid antigen test (RAT) on the sixth or seventh day after the infected family members have positive test results.

From Monday to April 13, the government will also change how a person is recognized as having been infected with Covid-19 or not. Now, a person is considered infected immediately after the person tests positive with RAT for professionals at a neighborhood clinic. Previously, a person has been considered infected only after he or she tests positive with the PCR test, even if he or she already tested positive with the RAT for professionals.

With positive results with the RAT for professionals, people should go home and be isolated immediately. The infected person is permitted to go pharmacist to get prescription drugs. Hospitals that provide RAT for professionals to individuals can be found at the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service’s website (www.hira.or.kr) or the government’s Covid-19 website (ncov.mohw.go.kr).

A person who tests positive with a Covid-19 self test, however, will not be considered a confirmed case. Such a person should take RAT or PCR test to be considered a confirmed case.


ksy@donga.com · yena@donga.com