The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education says it will maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs) introduced at the peak of the coronavirus crisis including the wearing of masks and social distancing.
On Monday, National COVID-19 task force coordinator Dr. Agnes Mahomva said it is no longer mandatory to wear face masks indoors.
But Primary and Secondary Education communications and advocacy director Taungana Ndoro said SOPs adopted at the onset of COVID-19 including the wearing of masks make schools safe. He said:
They don’t protect our pupils from COVID-19 only but many other communicable diseases such as cholera, typhoid, flues and any other diseases.
They also help us in terms of health and hygiene, washing of hands, cleanliness, and social distancing, it has taught us a lot and there is no way we are going to discard that.
It is to our advantage whether there is an outbreak we will able to contain it because we have the SOPs.
If it’s the flue, it’s a bug it won’t spread because we have these standard operating procedures. So, this is why we will continue to maintain them.
Dr. Mahomva said schools will continue getting support from the Government to ensure that they uphold the SOPs currently in place. She said:
Government continues to support schools to make sure that they have access to water, to make sure there is no crowding, they practice social distancing and those are the practices.
And we know even before COVID-19 when you go into winter pay attention, especially in places where someone has a common cold because you’ll never know what it is.
That is the kind of thing that is the new normal. We are not going back to where we were before COVID-19.
The education sector was one of the worst affected by COVID-19 as the Government closed schools and institutions of higher learning for prolonged periods to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
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