School pushes Covid-19 controls

Paramount Academy in Lilongwe has increased efforts of sanitation at the school to prevent the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19).

With the new measures, every person entering the school campus is required to wash their hands with soap and have their body temperature checked.

Learners are also washing their hands every hour and using hand sanitiser every 30 minutes.

The school’s managing director Zarina Sama said they started the exercise this week and so far, the results are good.

She said: “We send back some learners with high temperatures and any signs of flu so that parents can seek medical attention. We don’t want to take chances with the students’ lives. In the long run we are building a good character as they will get used to good sanitation practices.”

Sama has since urged other institutions to familiarise learners with preventive measures so that, should there be an outbreak in the country, transmission is minimised.

Meanwhile, health expert Adamson Muula has called on more institutions to join hands in such efforts.

He said: “Of course, that isn’t the only school that has stepped up good sanitation practices in the wake of the coronavirus. However, more schools need to emulate this good example.”

Muula added that even government can do better in enforcing preventive measures, saying people may start panicking because they are expecting things which may not be necessary at the moment.

Since the outbreak was recorded in Wuhan Province in China in December 2019, it has spread to many countries globally, with Italy and Britain being some of the hardest hit.

Tanzania, Malawi’s border to the North, confirmed its first case on Monday—joining about 40 other African countries, including Mozambique, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Ghana, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Egypt and Liberia. No case has been registered in  Malawi.