(To watch the full press briefing with sign language interpretation, click here.)

All kindergartens, as well as primary and secondary schools, will further suspend face-to-face classes and school activities until the Lunar New Year holiday next month.

Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung made the announcement at a press briefing this afternoon.

He said: “The overall strategy now is to maintain the social distancing measures for another two weeks. And it is also possible that there could be no relaxation before the Chinese New Year.”

Mr Yeung acknowledged that a prolonged face-to-face class suspension would affect students’ learning, however he added that primary and secondary schools are allowed to arrange for a small number of students to return for classes or examinations.

“We wish to give the schools as well as the parents some sort of planning for a longer term.

“For example, about the measures we talked about today - allowing different classes of different forms to go back to school, it is better for schools to have a longer-term planning instead of week by week.

“They now have a four to five-week period, so they can plan over that period on which year of students could come back first and all sorts of arrangements, and how the curriculum or the school lessons should be structured to allow the study at home as well as the face-to-face lessons to tally with each other.”

Secondary schools can arrange two sessions of half-day face-to-face classes or assessments in the morning and the afternoon, with the upper limit for students to return to a school capped at one-sixth of its maximum permitted capacity.

Primary schools can also arrange for no more than one-sixth of the total number of students to return to a school for face-to-face classes or exams on a half-day basis in the morning.