The Guangdong Department of Education urged provincial departments and schools to redouble their efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus on campuses, given the unfolding national college entrance examinations, or gaokao.

The three-day series of tests is set to end on Wednesday. More than 53,000 students in Guangzhou are taking the gaokao, which is seen as one of the most important events for Chinese students.

In a notice issued on Wednesday, the department ordered all teaching staff and students to strictly abide by the measures and polices issued by the central government, as well as by the Guangdong provincial and Guangzhou city governments, to control the coronavirus in the weeks to come.

Departments should send students back home in a safe and orderly way after the examination, the notice said.

Meanwhile, teaching staff and students should continue to actively cooperate with local neighborhood committees and disease prevention and control departments to avoid being infected with the coronavirus, according to the notice.

To ensure a safe gaokao, all students attending were ordered to receive health supervision for two weeks and to be prepared to show their negative test results before being allowed to enter an examination venue.

Two students who had been found to be asymptomatic carriers were subject to special arrangements for examinations in isolated wards of a designated hospital.