Jan. 20 (UPI) —<\/span> The government in Hong Kong said Thursday that it’s decided to close all in-person classes at secondary schools on the island for at least the next couple of weeks, due to a rising number of COVID-19 cases in the Chinese territory.<\/p>\n Hong Kong has already closed in-person classes for primary schools due to concerns about rising and untraceable infections. The closure of secondary schools will take effect on Monday.\n<\/p>\n<\/article>\n Officials said in-person classes at secondary schools won’t resume until sometime after the Lunar New Year, which is Feb. 7.<\/p>\n Authorities in Hong Kong have expressed concern about a “very severe” rise in COVID-19 cases that stem from an undetermined source. The closure of secondary schools comes after students from three different schools tested positive for the coronavirus.<\/p>\n “The pandemic is getting very severe, with some invisible and visible transmissions in our communities,” Chuang Shuk-kwan, an expert at Hong Kong’s Center for Health Prevention, told The Hong Kong Free Press.<\/p>\n The move is the latest curb ordered by the government in Hong Kong. Earlier this month, a ban was ordered on indoor dining after 6 p.m. and certain businesses — including gyms and movie theaters — were closed until further notice.\n<\/p>\n Authorities in Hong Kong have also received criticism in recent days for ordering 2,000 small animals to be euthanized after a few of them tested positive for COVID-19. Health officials have defended the move, although most scientists say that it’s unlikely that animals can pass on the coronavirus to humans.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Secondary school students are seen in Hong Kong on April 26, 2021. Officials said on Thursday that in-person classes at secondary schools will close beginning Monday due to a rise in COVID-19 infections. File Photo by Anthony Kwan\/EPA-EFE Jan. 20 (UPI) — The government in Hong Kong said Thursday that it’s decided to close all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":759812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-759811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759811\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Hong](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Hong-Kong-to-close-in-person-classes-at-secondary-schools-due-to-COVID-19-outbreaks.jpg\" "\\"Hong")
\n<\/div>\nSecondary school students are seen in Hong Kong on April 26, 2021. Officials said on Thursday that in-person classes at secondary schools will close beginning Monday due to a rise in COVID-19 infections. File Photo by Anthony Kwan\/EPA-EFE<\/p>\n