March 28, 2024

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The Elite

Schools Will Be Closed Down On Monday After Increasing Cases Of Covid-19 In Schools-Opinion

Barely two weeks after reopening of schools for grade four, class eight and form four students, several schools have already registered positive cases corona virus cases. According to Wednesday reports on Daily Nation, two students had tested positive for covid-19 in Nandi County. Daily Nation reported that Nandi county government health department acted immediately and took the students to isolation centers.

Minister of Education George Magoha

Radio Maisha presenter Billy Miya, also reported on Wednesday that two schools in Mombasa had been closed following teachers in schools testing positive for covid-19. A lot of media houses on Wednesday evening news noted that 11 teachers of The Star of the sea high school in Mombasa had tested positive for covid-19 disease. This prompted the management to close down the school for fumigation. The note shared on social media by Billy Miya indicated that students were to report back to school on November 2nd.

More Cases In Schools

Billy further stated that teachers from Tononoka School in Mombasa had also tested positive for corona virus and has since been closed too. Mombasa county health teams took charge of the situation and more samples from close contacts had been taken for testing.

If 11 teachers of one school can test positive for covid-19 at once, there are chances that many students and teachers have also been infected. Since many schools are ill prepared to handle covid-19, the safest option is to close all schools. The ministry of health  should be allowed to battle the second wave of covid-19 outbreak before learning resumes.

Proffesor George Magoha with students

The national positivity rate has risen to over 12% indicating that all is not well. The Standard on Wednesday reported that Moi teaching and referral hospital in Eldoret is already overwhelmed by covid-19 patients. The doctor who spoke to The Standard seeking anonymity revealed that several staff had also tested positive. He further added that the ICU was already full. The ministry of health has also openly admitted that most isolation centres are full with over 1000 hospital admissions at the moment.

Reasons Learning Institutions Should be Closed

Schools ought to be closed and reopened in January for a number of reasons. First, it will give the ministry of health time to battle the current second wave of covid-19. Contact tracing will be up scaled and positive cases treated without overwhelming healthcare facilities. It will also allow time for schools to adequately prepare. Most schools do not even have a sick bay nor a trained medical staff.

They need to use this time to set up one and hire healthcare professionals that can manage suspected or confirmed cases accordingly. Furthermore, most research institutions working on the covid-19 vaccine are optimistic that they would have developed the vaccine by January. Students can be a little more patient as scientists work on the covid-19 vaccine. Therefore, Education CS Prof George Magoha needs to send all students back home by Monday before it is too late. This is because schools have become a serious threat to their health amid ill preparedness.

Will Schools Close Down? Alarm After Students Test Positive for COVID-19

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