All Kwakwani Secondary School staff to be tested for COVID-19

• After Hostel staff was tested positive
• Teachers request that the entire facility be locked down

The Region 10 COVID-19 Task Force, will facilitate COVID-19 testing on all staff members at the Kwakwani Secondary School, especially those employed at the Kwakwani Hostel, within the week. Regional Health Officer (RHO) Dr. Gregory Harris, said that the testing will be facilitated, following the request made by teachers to have this done, after they were informed that a Hostel employee was tested positive.

 At the Regional Democratic Council (RDC), statutory meeting on Thursday, Regional Vice Chairman Douglas Gittens, who recently visited the community, said that teachers expressed concerns that after the employee was tested, she was still working at the hostel and interacting with students and other employees. The teachers demanded, he said, that all students and teachers be tested. In fact he said, the teachers requested that the entire facility be locked down.

 The Regional Education Officer, Akbar Chindu, said upon learning about the situation, he immediately relayed same to the Regional Health Officer and systems were put in place. Prior to that, Dr. Harris said that the staff who tested positive, should not have been at work and this was as a result of human negligence, since the senior staff who knew about the situation, should not have allowed same.

Some students were already tested, however, Dr. Harris said the rapid test will be repeated on these students while the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test will be done on the others. “I make a commitment on behalf of the Health Department that testing will be done between now and Monday,” Dr. Harris said.