MINISTER Zweli Mkhize said it was not necessary for Cowan House Preparatory School to cancel its classes today (Friday).
Mkhize said this while he was addressing the media this afternoon (Friday) inside this school in the Hilton area in Pietermaritzburg in the KZN midlands.
The school management decided to cancel all the classes today (Friday) after it emerged that a man (38) who has two kids studying in this school tested positive for corona virus yesterday (Thursday).
"We came here to have a conversation with the parents in the wake of the confirmed case of corona virus. This was important because we were concerned that misunderstanding or lack of information does create panic and that is the last thing we want to see while dealing with such a problem of public health concern," said Mkhize.
He said in their meeting with the parents earlier on the day they took them through the whole history of the corona birus infection, given a sense of what is happening in the whole world, how the World Health Organization (WHO) has responded and how the country has responded.
"We have asked that the school need not to be closed and that the parents need not to panic. We also accept that there would have been kids that had flu and sysmptoms before this incident. We can just have them checked but its very much unlikely that there is someone who would display symptoms outside the contacts of this particular individual that has tested positive," said Mkhize.
He said they will not be testing any of the children in the school or allowing for the school to be closed.
"We just recomend that parents must just have a high level of obsevation so that if there is any case of concern, we can consult the medical teams to deal with it," said Mkhize.
He said it is totally understandable for parents to feel anxious.
"It's okay for parents to be concerned but they must always remember that we are all together in this," he said.
He called for calm to the rest of the South Africans, stressing that government has everything under control.
He added that people needed not to spread false information that there are other cases that have been confirmed here and there.
"We still have only one case that has been brought to our attention in South Africa, nothing else," he said.
KZN education MEC Kwazi Mshengu said they will be in contact with principals of different schools.
"Just to discourage any form of panic. We dont advise any attempt to close schools at slightest suspision because we have been advised that we are not in a stage of an outbreak so really there is no need for us to close down our schools," said Mshengu.
The individual who tested positive returned from a holiday in Italy with his wife on Sunday, 1 March. It is said at that time he looked just fine until he started showing severe sysmptoms on Tuesday, 2 March and he rushed to a doctor who ran the tests that were only confirmed to be those of a corona virus yesterday (Thursday). He is being treated while his wife and kids as well as the doctor that he visited have been placed on isolation. They are also been tested if they have the virus and their results are still going to be issued.
