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Parents worried about COVID-19 spike in KZN schools

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As concerns mount over a spike in COVID-19 infections in KwaZulu-Natal schools, health experts are appealing for calm among parents. According to Premier Sihle Zikalala, more than 120 schools have reported cluster outbreaks in the province since the start of the third term.

Two learners from KwaZulu-Natal died earlier this month after contracting the virus.

On Friday, the province reported 4 198 new COVID-19 cases, followed by the Western Cape with 3828 new cases.

Like thousands of other families across South Africa, Brenda Siswana and her family had their fair share of heartache and challenges in recent months.

This mother of four boys from Westville in Durban lost her brother and father since the pandemic struck last March. Although they did not die from COVID-19, Siswana says it was difficult not being able to visit her father during the three weeks he spent in hospital as his condition progressively worsened.

Siswana says it’s important for parents to be brave and positive for the sake of their children and to put practical systems in place to adjust.

“We’ve created a system at home, when they come home from school, they have to be on a facial steamer. They have to take a shower, they have to take off their clothes that they were wearing and put on new clothes, or they can be in their pyjamas because they’re not going anywhere. So those are the things where they know we now have to live in this way. Unlike when they come back from school, they just sit at the table and they have their food.”

Siswana’s children are between 10 and 17 years-old. It is in this age group,10 to 19 years, that there has been a spike in the number of COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the school third term.

Doctor Robert Lessells from the KwaZulu-Natal Research and Innovation Sequencing Platform (KRISP) says children are simply more exposed to the virus.

“We know that some of the younger children in the school groups, again, were relatively protected in Wave 1 and Wave 2 because during the worst of those waves the schools were closed. And I think what we are seeing now, is that the age groups we are seeing a pick-up in the infection rate, particularly in the 10 to 19-year-old in many of the provinces.”

He recommends that schooling continues because of the severe impact of the disruption on learning, saying that the spread of the virus can be limited by fairly simple means, such as natural ventilation.

“It’s very simple to open all the windows and doors and have as good natural ventilation as you can in classrooms, in any other buildings in schools. Of course, in winter that’s more challenging, and that may be another kind of contributor to why we are seeing some pick-up in infection.”

Siswana is calling for a return to the rotation system at schools to decrease the risk of infection.

“At least there’s not too much congestion outside the schoolyard. You know that if you see those kids at half-past one, it’s only grade 4s. And then the parents come and pick them up. After half-past one, you see the kids standing there at 2 o’clock, then you know it’s grade 5s standing there. And they’re not coming on the same days as they are doing now. Because at this point in time there’s too much spread at school, and it’s just unavoidable.”

Her youngest son, 10-year-old Chumile, is a happy and outgoing child. But even he admits that it is distracting to wear a mask in class. He describes not knowing how far, is far enough, when sitting with his friends during lunch break.

“Well, I would say that mustn’t try and move about the mask on your face too much. And the social distancing, you must just make sure that you do keep a distance, yes. To not only protect yourself. But to protect the people around you. So the mask thing, you mustn’t worry about that. You must act as if the mask isn’t there.”

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