In this May 27, 2020 file photo, Hong Kong's middle school students back to public schools in Causeway Bay after a four-month class suspension caused by the coronavirus pandemic. (PARKER ZHENG / CHINA DAILY)

HONG KONG - Hong Kong schools will begin summer vacation next Monday as a surge in COVID-19 cases within the community after a long stretch without infections forces the financial hub to revert to tighter social distancing rules.

Hong Kong reported 38 new coronavirus cases on Friday, edging down from Thursday's 42 but broadly in line with a sharp increase that the city has registered over the past three days.

Amid concerns of a renewed community spread it had reported mostly imported cases for months, authorities said 32 of the new cases were locally transmitted, little changed from Thursday's 34.

READ MORE: Unknown origin of HK's rising local cases sparks resurgence fears

The total number of cases in the global financial hub since late January stands at 1,403, of whom seven have died.

Briefing the press on Friday afternoon, Hong Kong Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung said secondary and primary schools as well as kindergartens will suspend class starting coming Monday.

Flexibility will be allowed for schools to hold important examinations that had been scheduled for next week, including internal examinations for the purpose Secondary School Places Allocation for Primary 5 students, education chief Kevin Yeung said

Flexibility will be allowed for schools to hold important examinations that had been scheduled for next week, including internal examinations for the purpose Secondary School Places Allocation for Primary 5 students, Yeung said.

Necessary precautions, such as wearing masks and keeping a safe social distancing between students, should be adopted to prevent the transmission of the disease, Yeung said.

Schools should also remain open until the originally scheduled day of the beginning of the summer holiday.

The resurgence in Hong Kong comes after weeks as people returned to work and restaurants were again filled up. 

Among the new cases reported on Friday, 11 people were from a residential building in Sha Tin and likely to get infected by using public facilities, such as elevators, and 10 were related to previous cases, including diners of a restaurant where a cluster of new cases had been reported and close contacts of COVID-19 patients diagnosed days earlier.

The Center for Health Protection noted that transmission chains of nine of the new local infections were unclear.

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Schools in the city have been mostly shut since February with many having switched to online learning and lessons by conference call. Many international schools are already on summer break.

Some of the recent cases involved students and parents, said Yeung.

"Many parents are worried about the sudden growth of local transmission cases in the past few days," said Mimi Tsang, mother of 12-year-old student Melony.

The early closure of schools would this time not have much impact on teaching, students and parents said, as it comes just ahead of the summer holidays.

"We just had one more week of classes to go, so I don't think there is too much difference," said 14-year-old student Ryan Chan.

With inputs from agencies