*PRESS RELEASE
23RD JANUARY 2021
GUIDANCE ON THE MANAGEMENT OF BOARDING STUDENTS
Following the Presidential directive that all students in boarding schools should remain in schools till they have been assessed by health authorities, we would like to strongly request that all school Head Teachers retain their students in school till the screening and monitoring exercise is done. All the students will be screened and testing will be conducted on students that are presenting with signs and symptoms, and those that will test positive shall be separated from the ones that will test negative within the school premises. It is important to retain students in school in order to avoid spreading the infection in the community where the more vulnerable people (parents and guardians) reside and are at risk of serious disease if infected.
Those that test negative will further be monitored whilst in the school since the virus might be in the incubation phase and if they have the infection, though negative after test, they may end up infecting their vulnerable parents back home who may not survive the condition. In addition, it is important to prevent the students who have tested negative and are truly negative from getting infected if they are allowed to go home and mix with the public where transmission is currently high. Head Teachers are therefore requested and advised to allocate hostels for those testing positive and others for those that test negative.
For the schools that have allowed students to go home before or after assessment by health authorities, return of such students shall be on condition that they bring a COVID-19 PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) negative certificate valid within 72hrs. Those students that will return to school without the negative certificate shall be put on mandatory quarantine for a period of not less than 10 days since they are currently mixing with the general public where community transmission is high. However, it is important to note that there are no adequate stocks to conduct PCR tests to the asymptomatic.
Head teachers whose students have gone home are therefore advised to consider calling them back to school so that the process of monitoring and breaking the transmission among the students can start before schools are declared open. This will help avoid the requirement for a PCR test or alternatively going into quarantine upon return to school whilst their colleagues shall have resumed classes.
Charles Mwansambo Chikondano C. Mussa
SECRETARY FOR HEALTH SECRETARY FOR EDUCATION