Panic after coronavirus hits 99 students
At least 99 students, four teachers and a subordinate staff at the Muruku Secondary School in Laikipia County have been placed in quarantine at the institution after they tested positive for Covid-19.
The County chief officer for Health, Donald Mugoi said the 104 tested positive last Friday.
It is the highest number of infections reported in a single learning institution since schools reopened in October last year following a six-month closure occasioned by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in March last year.
The outbreak at Muruku Secondary school comes on the week schools are expected to close for the third term holidays and re-open on July 27 for the beginning of the first term.
Form One students are on the other hand expected to report to their respective schools on the first week of August.
Mugoi said the victims were picked from a total of 282 samples that were collected from teachers, students and other workers at the day school located in Salama ward of Laikipia West constituency.
“A total of 264 students, 17 teachers and a subordinate were tested and out of these samples 99 students among them 40 males and 59 females, four teachers (three females and one male) and a subordinate staff tested positive,” the chief officer said adding that it is a localized outbreak within the school.
He said the tests were conducted after a number of students displayed Covid-19 related symptoms.
“We sent our public health officers at the institution and today, we have confirmed that it is true that the students and the teachers have tested positive,” he said.
The Chief Officer said that the 99 students are being quarantined at the institution.
“Three teachers have been placed at Ol Jabet private facility isolation facility while another one is admitted at Pope Benedict Catholic hospital in Nyahururu town,” said Mugoi.
Nyahururu sub-county Director of Education Samson Mburungu said proper measures have been put in place to curb further spread of the virus at the institution.
Positive students
“We have directed the school management to ensure that the positive students are quarantined at the institution in the next ten days, while the negative students are also isolated,” said Mburungu.
He said most of the students at the institution are day scholars. He said they have ordered for the closure of all churches, hotels and other places that attract huge gatherings.
