200 Eastern Cape schools still closed over virus

There are 200 Eastern Cape schools that remain closed due to the Coronavirus pandemic, premier Oscar Mabuyane said in Bhisho on Tuesday morning.

Mabuyane said there were a total of 291 provincial schools affected by Covid — 19.

He said 24 health workers from the province have died from the virus, while 838 health workers tested positive for Covid-19.

Mabuyane and his MECs are currently briefing the media on the work done to stop the spread of the virus.

Education MEC Fundile Gade said 15 people from his department have succumbed to Covid-19 related illnesses. The majority of those are educators, he said.

With rising infections across provincial schools, Gade said: “There is a need of a discussion at a national level to reconsider the phasing in of other grades that were that were scheduled to be back on the 6th of July for strategic reasons.”

In the public interest, most of our coronavirus news isn’t behind our paywall, and is free to read. To support our mission of delivering award-winning, independent local news, subscribe from as little as R45 per month by clicking here.