Minister of Health Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda has urged private and public schools to comply with the order delaying school reopening in Lilongwe and Blantyre, saying the decision has been made to safeguard learners and curb the further spread of Cholera in the two cities.
Kandodo has said this at a press briefing in Lilongwe today.
She noted that in the past 7 days, there have been 2,773 cases of Cholera and 137 deaths in Malawi. Out of these, Blantyre reported 792 cases and 36 deaths while Lilongwe reported 506 cases and 36 deaths during the past 7 days
Kandodo said this indicates high transmission of the disease in these two cities and significantly informed the decision to delay the opening of schools on these two cities, and surrounding areas
She added that opening of schools in the two cities would pose an additional threat to containment of the outbreak, considering that cholera is passed from one-person to another through contaminated food, water and inadequate sanitation facilities, a feature that exists in school settings.
“The converging of learners, especially in nursery, primary and secondary schools, increases the chances of uncontrolled spread of the vibrio bacteria that causes cholera disease,” she said.
She then emphasized that there is need for compliance for both private and public schools.
Kandodo assured the public that government will ensure that there us minimum disruption to the academic calendar.
According to Kandodo, the Ministry of education will strive to provide catch up lessons in schools which are to miss classes in the next 10 days and also will use alternative platforms of delivering education.
She added that the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health have developed standard operating procedures for Cholera prevention in schools and will ensure that the at the procedures are being strictly followed to prevent cholera in schools.
According to Kandodo, authorities willl conduct thorough assessment of water and sanitation needs in schools in both cities, provide safe water in the schools including reconnections to piped water supply for those schools that had water disconnected and provide sanitary facilities in these schools and hand hygiene equipment to be in place
She further said that government will open more treatment centres especially where cases are coming from to minimize travel distances for patients, employ surge staff to support in the treatment centres and activate a security cluster to assist in ensuring compliance with preventive and containment measures.
It is also expected that in the next two weeks, government will finalize development and gazetting of preventive and containment measures for Cholera under the Public Health Act and intensify hygiene promotion messages as well as distribution of chlorine for pot to pot chlorination in the communities.
Government through the Ministry of Water and Sanitation also plans to provide free water connection giving priorities in hotspot areas, provide water using bowser in all hotspot areas, distribute chlorine, suspend all bills in areas in all public kiosks, open all kiosks with accumulated bills and conduct water quality assessment in targeted areas
In Rural areas, government plans to
rehabilitate boreholes, construct new water points in hotspot areas distribute chlorine and promote sanitation and hygiene.
Meanwhile, Kandodo has urged members of the public to observe cholera preventive and containment measures, such as: use of safe water, frequent hand washing with soap, food hygiene as well as early seeking of care when one is experiencing Cholera signs and symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea.
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