Johannesburg - The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) said it was extremely worried about the growing number of Covid-19 cases in institutions of higher learning across the country.
Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Blade Nzimande has made an appeal to students, lecturers and all staff to remain vigilant and adhere to the Covid-19 regulations.
This comes after the department received reports of pockets of Covid19 infections within the post-school education and training sector from Higher Health, the agency mandated by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) to safeguard student health and well-being.
“While Covid-19 has largely been detrimental for the older population groups, the virus is mutating and new variants are showing a higher affinity towards young people who can serve as carriers and hasten the spread of infection. Unfortunately, that would fire up the third wave,” warned Nzimande on Friday.
The minister confirmed that the University of Pretoria was the only institution that has experienced a small cluster outbreak. However, there were pockets of positive cases in other universities and TVET colleges.
He said that 55 students from the University of Pretoria had tested positive up until March 31.
“We are aggressively working on contact tracing with the help of the Department of Health and have tested and screened a large number of students and staff over the last few days… There is a probability that the number of positive cases may rise,” he said.
Nzimande said Higher Health, working with the institutions, the local Department of Health (DOH), the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), had formulated Cluster Outbreak investigation teams.
He added that Higher Health had organised the training of more than 180 staff working in security, residences, cleaning staff and student support, on all Covid-19 protocols and disinfection measures.
In light of the minister’s statement, Nehawu said the union was “extremely worried” about the growing number of Covid-19 cases at post-school education and training institutions.
“Once again, we reiterate our call for the department not to cut corners as this will lead to the loss of lives and more disruption to the academic calendar,” the union said.
Nehawu called on the DHET working with Higher Health, the DOH, the NICD and the NHLS to expedite the screening, testing and tracing of students and workers on all campuses.
“More attention must immediately be paid to these institutions as they have a potential to become super-spreaders,” it said.
The union added that, on February 12, it convened a bargaining forum to assess the state of readiness of institutions of higher learning, and reports received at the meeting revealed that most institutions were far from ready to welcome workers and students back to campuses.
“Visits to the institutions reveal the majority of the colleges and universities are not ready to safely welcome back workers and students. Most institutions do not have personal protective equipment, nor enough space for social distancing.”
The Star