COVID-19: Gov’t will Consider Shutting down Schools if Infection Rate Reaches 15% - Deputy Health Minister

The Deputy Minister suggested that the COVID-19 infection rate in schools is still manageable

COVID-19: Gov’t will Consider Shutting down Schools if Infection Rate Reaches 15% - Deputy Health Minister

The Government of Ghana will close down educational institutions again, if the COVID-19 infection rate goes beyond 15% of a school’s population, the Deputy Health Minister has said.

Dr Bernard Okoe Boye suggested that the infection rate at schools is still manageable, and not as alarming as critics are purporting.

His comments follows agitation by some concerned stakeholders that, the COVID-19 outbreak in the Accra Girls’ Senior High School provides a strong reason to close schools.

So far, 55 persons in Accra Girls SHS have being confirmed to have contracted the virus, causing many parents to panic.

However, Dr Okoe Boye explained on Asempa FM that government will act accordingly, in case COVID-19 infections spike within these educational institutions.

“If you have 500 students in the school, if you get 35 that amounts to seven percent of the number. We either make them go home or find a way to deal with them separately. The allowed percent is 7 percent. If you have 14 or 15 percent of the school population it is alarming. 

“And the second one which is even the most alarming category is when morbidity is more than half the number you have. If half of your cases are sick, it means there might be many out there that you’ve not picked,” he said on Tuesday, July 14, 2020.

 

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Meanwhile, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has spelt out some urgent measures being employed in Senior High Schools to contain the spread of the virulent disease.

The GES said it working with the Ghana Health Service to ensure the students and staff of these educational institutions are safe.