Since the reopening of schools for students from Grades 10, 11 and 12 on November 9, a total of 32 students have tested positive for COVID-19. But Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony has said none of them is displaying any symptoms.
The Minister, in his daily COVID-19 update on Wednesday, said: “all the cases that we’ve had so far are asymptomatic and we only knew that they were positive because we did the PCR test and so we’re monitoring.”
“With a pandemic, you will expect that there are people who are going to be positive but like we have seen in other parts of the world, children generally are asymptomatic and they will have a milder form of the disease,” Dr Anthony added.
For the students who tested positive, parents were given the option of having their children go to a government isolation facility or return home, where they are expected to isolate for 10- 14 days.
In some cases, parents have opted to take their children home and have them isolate there.
Students, who travelled from the hinterland to attend school in Region Four and later tested positive, are being isolated at the Diamond Hospital, Dr Anthony said. Eight students were brought from the Kato Secondary School to attend President’s College during this period.
“They’ve all been looked after and are being monitored,” the Minister assured.
He noted that the Regional Education officers and Regional Health Officers have been collaborating with the technical officers and all stakeholders to ensure the students and teachers remain safe.
The reopening of schools on November 9 allowed for some 21,000 students from the selected grades along with Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET) students to return to the classroom for face to face learning.
In some villages where there has been a spike in cases, such as Warapoka in Region One and St Cuthbert’s Mission in Region Four, those students have not returned to school. However, they are being sent educational materials through their teachers to complete their work.
