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Dormitory students to be tested again for schools’ re-opening
Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony
Kaieteur News – Students occupying dormitories will be required to have a COVID-19 test done again as they return for the new school term tomorrow.
This was announced by the Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony during his COVID-19 update on Thursday, December 31.
In light of the formal resumption of classes tomorrow for the new school term, the Health Minister said that it is mandatory for the dormitory students to be tested so that the Ministry could make sure they are not carrying the virus. This is because many of them went back home for the holidays, including two regions known to have many COVID-19 cases.
According to Dr. Anthony, once they test negative for the virus, they will be placed in the general dormitory of the school but if they test positive, they will be isolated separately from the rest of the school’s population.
Students will be tested using both Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and antigen tests kits, which have been sent out by the government.
Mechanisms have also been put in place to have the tests samples of those who had PCR tests conducted sent to the laboratory in Georgetown and the results will be sent back to the respective regions.
Anthony further disclosed that Regional Health Officers and Regional Educational Officers have been engaged to foster plans for the different regions.
This, he said, is part of the collaboration between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education as it relates to the reopening of schools.
Schools physically reopened on November 9 last year after being closed since March due to the pandemic.
In the Official Gazette of COVID-19 measures for the month of November, the Ministry of Health approved the conditional physical reopening of schools for Grades 10, 11, 12 and Technical and Vocation Education students.
One of the conditions for the reopening was that all dormitory students were to be tested for COVID-19 so that the government can know their COVID-19 status and prevent the possible spread of the virus among the student population.
It was revealed that many of the infections were linked to students coming from hinterland communities that were well-known COVID-19 hotspots. Since schools have physically reopened, over 30 students have tested for the virus, as previously reported by Kaieteur News.
Additionally, it was stated that many of them were asymptomatic.
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