Primary school closed after three teachers test positive for COVID-19

Voi Primary School in Taita Taveta County was on Wednesday, November 4 closed after three teachers tested positive for COVID-19.

Taita Taveta Education director Simon Wanjohi told K24 Digital that samples from 27 other teachers have been taken for analysis.

“We are expecting the results to be out on Thursday, November 5,” said Wanjohi.

“Should we find no new COVID-19 cases in the samples tested, resumption of studies at Voi Primary School will take place next week,” he said.

The Voi Primary School had Grade Four and Class Eight pupils in session.

Meanwhile, officials of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) in Taita Taveta County have called for the closure of schools in the region, citing a surge in COVID-19 infections in the country as a valid reason to terminate learning.

“The government, with immediacy, should close all primary and secondary schools within Voi Municipality and those in the surrounding for thorough fumigation and putting up all containment measures to break the chain of spread,” said Shedrack Mutungi, the Executive Secretary of KUPPET in Taita Taveta County.

The confirmed infections at the Voi school come a day after 60 COVID-19 cases were reported at a Busia secondary school.

Fifty-two (52) students from Kolanya Boys’ High School in Teso North Sub-County in Busia County on Tuesday tested positive for COVID-19, area Governor Sospeter Ojaamong told K24 Digital.

Also COVID-19 positive at the institution, were six teachers and two members of the non-teaching staff.

The 60 cases were discovered in 100 samples collected last week.

The patients were placed under mandatory quarantine at the school, with health officers from the Busia County Hospital deployed to attend to them.