BEIJING — More than 80,000 students in their final year of junior high school in Beijing returned to classrooms on May 11 as the COVID-19 epidemic is under control. Some of them have been given smart thermometers as a measure to guard against any risks.

Beijing Municipal Education Commission said that returning students have been provided with smart thermometers, in the form of wristbands, to monitor their body temperatures and report abnormal body temperatures in real-time.

Data collected by the smart thermometers is sent to the teacher's mobile phone. The teacher is responsible for uploading the data to a monitoring platform, which could also be shared with students' parents and other related educational departments.

The move aims to help schools make quick responses to anyone's temperature abnormalities.

So far, the pilot project has been trialled in 18 schools in Fengtai District, and will be promoted to more students, faculty, and staff in the city later, the municipal education authorities said.

On April 27, nearly 50,000 senior students of senior high schools in Beijing returned to campus to start their postponed new semester.