College students from Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi Province practice gymnastics on May 12, 2023. Photo: VCG

The education department under the Shaanxi provincial government in Northwest China has listed COVID-19 infection as a special attention event, warning all schools to strengthen COVID-19 monitoring and take precautionary measures as the positive rate of nucleic acid testing has recently begun to rise.
 
The epidemic situation in Shaanxi remains at a low level, and monitoring data shows infections were on an upward trend, provincial education authorities said in an early warning for school public health emergency released on Wednesday.
 
The epidemic prevention and control on campus is facing new challenges as the college and high school entrance examinations approach, along with rising temperatures and other factors.
 
The early warning advises all schools within the province to implement epidemic prevention and control strictly under the national plan for COVID-19 prevention and control in kindergartens, primary and middle schools and higher education institutions.
 
It also called for educational institutions to strengthen monitoring, promptly responding to any negative developments and formulate targeted prevention and control measures, as well as enhance personal protection awareness.
 
The early warning requested all schools to focus on events such as brucellosis and hemorrhagic fever. Hand, foot and mouth disease, foodborne disease, mumps and possible rabies also feature on a watchlist.

Since December 9, 2022, the positive rate of COVID-19 nucleic acid tests in China had increased before fallen, according to the latest report released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on April 29. The number of COVID-19 cases dropped to 2,661 on April 20, and climbed in the week from April 21 to April 27, to 6,752 on April 27, the China CDC said.

From April 1 to April 30, more than 2.1 million infectious disease cases and 2,217 deaths were reported across the Chinese mainland, according to a report released by the Chinese CDC on Thursday.

In addition to COVID-19 infections, a total of 291,128 infected cases and 2,185 deaths were reported from a further 21 different class B infectious diseases. The top five reported diseases including viral hepatitis and tuberculosis, accounting for 96 percent of total reported class B infectious disease cases, the report noted.