President Lazarus Chakwera has condemned the decision by some parents and schools to release into the community students from boarding schools, saying the move is contributing to the spread of the pandemic.
He made the remarks at Kamuzu Palace last night as he addressed the nation amid rising numbers of Covid-19 cases, which yesterday indicated both number of tested people and those who had died because of the pandemic had doubled.
Nearly two weeks ago at a similar event, the President, ordered that all boarding schools should not close while day schools should close temporarily for three weeks.
But last night, Chakwera said several schools and guardians had defied the call—leading to a spike in cases as students were released into communities without being tested.
Said the President: “Another directive I gave last week for containing the virus was to do with schools. I said that all schools should close
for three weeks, except for students taking final exams. I also said that boarding schools should not send their students home, but should keep them on school premises until they are screened by health authorities who will assess whether it is safe to send students home.
“ Sadly, we have learnt that some boarding schools sent students home without authorisation from 10 health authorities, which has the risk of further spreading the virus to vulnerable groups in the community.
This has l ed to confusion among the parents of school boarders about whether to keep their children in school or bring them home.
“So, I want to state this matter as clearly as I can: If your boarding school has students on campus, those students must remain on campus, and the health authorities will reach you to provide support for managing the students who are infected and those who are not. If your boarding school has sent students home in the past week, parents and guardians must keep those students in isolation for the next two weeks, and then get them tested before they return to school when schools reopen at my direction.”
Chakwera , w h o revealed that the country has in the past seven days conducted a total of 17 963 coronavirus tests—which is an average of 2 566 tests per day and represent a 50 percent increase on the average number of daily tests the week before— also condemned reports of alleged police brutality during enforcement of Covid-19 measures.
“I have directed the Minister of Homeland Security to work with the Inspector General in ensuring that police officers are properly trained in the enforcement of these rules. Citizens found to be in violation of public safety laws must be subjected to due process,
not police brutality or beatings. Malawi is not a police State, for what we have in this country is a police service, not a police force,” he said.
The police’s brutal handling of people found not to be wearing masks in public places has attracted condemnation from the Malawi Human Rights Commission and rights activists, including those operating under the umbrella of Human Rights Defenders Coalition.
The President also said he had asked various clusters under the Response Action Plan to be issuing reports on various activities to his office and those unable to comply or found to abuse resources would be penalised.
