– Minister Manickchand urges against ‘stigmatising’ infected persons

EIGHT students who would be residing in the dorms of President’s College on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) have tested positive for COVID-19.

During a virtual press conference on Monday, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand related that from the first batch of students who entered the school, before instruction resumed on Monday, four were tested positive for the disease. Subsequently, a “wider batch” of students was tested and four additional students were positive.

It was reported that four of these students are from the Kato Secondary School, and are part of the first batch of students from this school who will be sitting the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations next year. They travelled to this school so that they could be adequately prepared.

These students are not displaying any of the symptoms, but are nevertheless COVID-19 positive. The minister also said that the other four students are not from that region, but are from other parts of the country; the eight students are in isolation.

Since the students residing in the dorms are sharing a living space with each other, Minister Manickchand had previously said that it was prudent to test all of those students for the virus. During a meeting with members of the media earlier Monday morning, Minister Manickchand explained that consideration was given to, essentially, creating a ‘bubble’ around this school. All students returning to the dorms were tested to ensure that the virus is not brought into the “bubble.”

She said then that there is “no real issue” at the school but later, at the press conference on Monday afternoon, she highlighted that when the 5,000 dorm students across Guyana are tested, it is likely that there will be more who are COVID-19 positive, given the spread of the virus in Guyana.

Parents of students attending this school can keep their children at home, once they are adequately engaged and students can also get transfers to schools close by, until schools return to some degree of normalcy. The transfers, the minister assured, will be facilitated in a matter of hours.

Additionally, she said that interactions with persons outside of the school would have to be curtailed in order to ensure the safety of the students. This also means that the ministry would offer the option of residency to the non-resident students; Minister Manickchand will meet with the parents of these non-resident students on Tuesday.

NO STIGMATISATION
The minister urged against “stigmatising” the disease, reminding that persons who are tested positive may experience mild symptoms and then return to normal health after isolating or quarantining for the stipulated time.

She also highlighted that if a large number of students are being tested, it is more likely that there will at least be some positive cases. And if a student is found positive, she emphasised that the protocols instituted by the Ministry of Health will be followed and that the Health Ministry will deal with those cases, as it would with any positive case of the virus.

“Do we shut down the entire system because we find a student with COVID? That’s not sensible, it’s not practical and it does not serve our children,” the Education Minister said.

When questioned why the students were not tested before coming to Region Four for school, Minister Manickchand said that the ministry was acting on advice from the Ministry of Health. She explained, too, that it was more practical to test the students, some of whom are travelling from far-flung communities, here so that there can be adequate tracing and that the students can be placed into the isolation facilities if need be, to reduce the possibility of re-infection.