South African celebrities have come on board and called for schools to remain closed for the rest of the year.
Media personalities Khanyi Mbau and Uyanda Mbuli have signed the " Keep schools closed for 2020 for students mental and physical health" which was started by Micheal Warren and has more then 160 000 signatures.
The petition states: "As we all know our society is in the grips of an epidemic that the world was not prepared for and now students are expected to go to school which is an already stressful place.
"Our society is saturated with the possibility of illness and death, students can't be expected to be put in an environment that risks their health or lives furthermore students are going to be cramming copious amounts of work which will affect students grades and mental health.
"Therefore school should be cancelled for the rest of 2020 so that we can make dealing with the epidemic our first priority and help take the stress off students and educators.
"Please as a grade 12 student this is an especially hard time for me personally I can't cope with school, family being ill and lack of funds for food and I know I'm not alone so I'm begging for this as a solution as school is my biggest stresser right now."
Supporting the petition, Mbau said: "The curve has not flattened, we are still fighting the invisible enemy, if churches are still a no go for adults why should children go outside and fight this virus. Please help us keep them safe by clicking and signing in support".
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/ForTheKids?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ForTheKids
— KHANYI MBAU (@MbauReloaded)
Reality star Mbuli agreed with her.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/ForTheKids?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ForTheKids
— Uyanda (@UyandaM)