South Africa reopened schools for pupils in certain grades after two and a half months of home-schooling to limit the spread of coronavirus.
The government had originally intended to reopen schools on June 1 but postponed this to June 8 after finding out that most schools required more time to better prepare facilities and train staff.
They’ll have to get used… Every day these soap stations must be there, the kids must know that ‘oh from time to time I have to wash my hands…’”
Mandla Masinga, is a grade 12 student at the school: “Ah, I don’t know, eish, it’s kind of confusing because like when the infection number was low nobody was expected to be at school, but now the number of infections is high and we are expected to be back at school so I don’t think it’s fair.”
Despite the number of COVID-19 cases growing sharply, the government is keen on the phased reopening of public and independent schools, with a cluster of grades returning on July 6 and the last cluster back on August 3.
Confirmed cases = 52,991
Number of deaths = 1,162
Recoveries = 29,006
Active cases = 22,823
Stats valid by close of day June 9 per John Hopkins Univ tracker
