TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said Tuesday (Feb. 16) that it will complete its disinfection of all K-12 schools around the country before students return for spring semester.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Education (MOE) announced that the reopening of primary and secondary schools following the winter break would be postponed to Feb. 22 due to the severity of the pandemic situation around the globe. It said the delay would give schools enough time to sanitize their campuses and implement COVID-19 preventive measures.

On Tuesday, the EPA pointed out that chemical teams were dispatched during the Lunar New Year holiday to conduct disinfection operations at all K-12 schools around Taiwan. So far, 557 schools have been disinfected, with the remaining 3,789 set to be cleaned before Monday, when the new semester begins.

Meanwhile, universities are asked to work with professional cleaning services to sanitize their campuses before they reopen. The entire process will be supervised by the MOE.