Cape Town - A teacher from Montevideo Primary School in Montana in Cape Town has died of coronavirus (Covid-19) complications, the Western Cape Teachers Forum (WCTF) has confirmed.
“It is with heavy hearts that we wish to express our deepest and sincerest condolences to the Montevideo Primary School community as well as the family of grade 7 teacher, Mr Klink, who passed away this week as a result of Covid-19 complications,” the forum said in a statement posted on its Facebook page.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, June 24, the school said one of its teachers had tested positive for Covid-19 and the teacher had been placed in quarantine. The school said the case had been reported to the Western Cape education department, which would provide deep cleaning and sanitising of the affected areas in the school.
According to the statement, the disinfection process was set to be completed by Monday, and the parents of children in grade 7 would be notified whether the school would be ready for pupils to return.
The school said that while it could not pinpoint the source of the infection, the incident highlighted the constant dangers facing teachers and pupils during the pandemic. The school had noted that some grade 7 pupils disregarded the safety rules currently in place at the school, and said it seemed that parents were not taking responsibility for ensuring that their their children complied with the hygiene regulations before and after school.
In another statement on Friday, the school confirmed that two positive cases were reported at the school, while a third staff member was awaiting test results. In view of recent calls across the country for the academic school year to be scrapped, the school said it was planning to stage a picket on Robert Sobukwe Drive on Tuesday and called on school governing bodies from neighboring areas to join the planned protest action.
Meanwhile, a second teacher has tested positive for Covid-19 at Hyde Park Primary School in Parkwood in Cape Town, just a few days after the school announced that another of its teachers had contracted the illness.
On Thursday, concerned teachers and parents staged a picket on the corner of Joe Marks Boulevard and Prince George Drive (M5) in Cape Town in protest against what they considered the "premature" reopening of schools during the pandemic.