South Africa Defies Virus Surge, Reopens More Schools

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South Africa has announced the reopening of more schools despite an upsurge in confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in the country.

Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga in a statement on Sunday announced that from July 6, schools would again reopen for Grades R, 6 and 11 learners.

Read also: 52 New COVID-19 Cases Confirmed In Abuja

The decision was made despite increased death rate in the country due to COVID-19.

Read also:

As of Sunday, the World Health Organisation, WHO had listed Egypt as the highest country with about 3,280 COVID-19 deaths, in Africa followed by South Africa with 3,026 fatalities and Algeria with 946 deaths.

Read also: Nigeria Immigration Stops 58 Doctors From Flying To UK

Motshekga instructed provinces that were not prepared to receive Grade R on July 6 to compulsorily provide realizable plans for ensuring the reincorporation of Grade R learners to schools within, but not later than the end of July 2020.

On June 8, South Africa reopened schools for Grade 7 and Grade 12 learners in its first phase of school reopening.

Since then, about 2,740 teachers have been infected by the virus.
Responding to concerns on reopening of schools despite surge in coronavirus cases, the minister urged everyone to simply abide by the health, safety and social distancing protocols on COVID-19.

“Failure to do so, the road ahead will be difficult for all of us,” Motshekga added.

According to the minister, the number of teachers infected is less than one percent of the total number of about 440,000 teachers in the country, NAN reports.

“1,260 learners were also infected with Coronavirus translating to 0.01 per cent of the total number of Grade 7 and Grade 12 learners.

“968 schools out of the total number of 25,762 schools have been closed due to transmissions among teachers and learners.

“Eleven teachers and 4 non-teaching staff members died of COVID-19 complications,” the minister said.

'Dotun Akintomide
'Dotun Akintomide
'Dotun Akintomide's journalism works intersect business, environment, politics and developmental issues. Among a number of local and international publications, his work has appeared in the New York Times. He's a winner of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Award. Currently, the Online Editor at The New Diplomat, Akintomide has produced reports that uniquely spoke to Nigeria's experience on Climate Change issues. When Akintomide is not writing, volunteering or working on a media project, you can find him seeing beautiful sites like the sandy beaches that bedecked the Lagos coastline.

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