South African students will have to delay entering their classrooms for two weeks due to the current surge in the coronavirus pandemic which has seen record daily deaths, Deputy Basic Education Minister Reginah Mhaule announced on Friday.
According to Mhaule, the opening of the 2021 academic calendar originally set for 27 January would now take place on 15 February for both public and private schools nationwide.
The move was taken in order to avoid further burdening the country’s health facilities which are struggling to cope following the second wave of Covid-19, the minister told the media.
While private schools had requested government to let them stay open, Mhaule said they too would shut down its doors for two weeks.
The surge, made worse by the development of a new variant of the virus that is said to be more transmissible, claimed 712 Covid-19 lives on Thursday, pushing the death toll to 35,852 from 1,296,806 infections.
NM/jn/APA