Fifty school-going children have tested positive in Zambia following the reopening of schools.
The learners tested positive out of 6,500 students who were screened in the last 24 hours, with most of them coming from the southern part of the country.
The Minister of Health Jonas Chanda said the pupils who have tested positive will be managed from homes while those in boarding schools will be managed in the context of a facility-based case.
“Our policy decision to reopen schools and higher learning institutions factored in the possibility that some teachers and pupils would test positive.
“Our teams of Infection Prevention and Control, Environmental Health and Surveillance experts are continually providing context-specific guidance to schools around the country,” he said in a statement.
He further said the ministry working in collaboration with the education authorities would soon release guidelines to ensure a safe learning environment for the learners.
Meanwhile, the country recorded 963 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours out of 6,747 tests done.
This brings the cumulative cases to 65,573 while 20 people died during the same period bringing the total deaths to 901.
A total of 556 patients were discharged bringing the total recoveries to 58,875.
