Twenty-two pupils from St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic High School, who had tested positive for Covid-19, have been cleared. 
The school, popularly known as Döbra, is located about 17km outside Windhoek. 
Education ministry’s clinical psychologist and acting director in programme and quality assurance Ayesha Wentworth confirmed to New Era yesterday that the pupils were cleared by the health authorities this week. She said 57 learners were swabbed for the virus on 25 August at the school. 
“Their results were received on 31 August 2020, of those results, 22 tested positive for Covid-19. 
Those learners were then isolated and re-tested on 4 September 2020 and were given clearance letters by the health ministry. 

The other 27 learners’ results were still pending and were taken to quarantine facilities pending the outcome of their test results,” Wentworth indicated. 

In August, a grade 10 learner who returned to the school hostel started showing Covid-19 symptoms and was then tested. 
The results came out positive which prompted the targeted testing at the school. After all the learners and staff members were tested, the results came out that 22 learners, a teacher and two hostel staff members also tested positive for Covid-19. 

Despite the circumstances, education minister Anna Nghipondoka on Tuesday informed parliamentarians the school had resumed face-to-face teaching and learning for the grade 11 and 12 learners on 3 June 2020, like all the other schools in the country. 
“The ministry assures the learners, parents, education staff and communities at large, that all precautionary measures were taken to ensure that this situation was handled in accordance with the set protocols with the assistance from the Ministry of Health and Social Services,” the minister said. Meanwhile, health minister Dr Kalumbi Shangula yesterday announced that 659 confirmed cases of Covid-19 have recovered from the virus. He also announced new 180 positive cases as the country’s tally of confirmed cases crossed the 9 000-mark. There are now 9 108 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country, 4 375 active cases and 4 640 recoveries.

anakale@nepc.com.na