A secondary school in Kowloon, Hong Kong, would suspend classes from Friday for a week after the Department of Health has verified that one of its students was suspected to have contracted SARS, said the Hong Kong SAR government Thursday.

The student went back to the St Teresa Secondary School when her class was resumed last Saturday but has been on sick leave since the following day.

As a precautionary measure, the Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB) announced that the school should be re-closed for a week.

An EMB spokesman said that during class suspension the health condition of all the staff members and students of the school will be closely monitored by the Department of Health and the school will step up cleansing and disinfecting measures to ensure its environmental hygiene condition.

To prevent the spread of SARS on school premises, the EMB introduced a new measure last Saturday that in addition to confirmed cases, if a staff member or student is suspected to have contracted SARS, the school has to suspend classes for 10 days.

The spokesman explained that the 10-day period would be counted from the first day of sick leave taken by the concerned staff member or student.

However, if the suspected case turns out to be non-SARS, the Department of Health will inform the EMB to arrange resumption of classes as soon as practicable, he added.

(Xinhua News Agency May 1, 2003)