Coronavirus: Shutting down Accra Girls, et al not an option – Okoe Boye

Deputy Health Minister, Dr. Bernard Okoe-Boye has dismissed calls for the closure of schools that have recorded covid-19 since the partial reopening.

The NDC Minority in Parliament has asked government to reconsider the partial reopen of schools, following the detection of COVID-19 cases in the Accra Girls Senior High School.

“We must prioritize the lives of the students, after all, how can sick or dead students write exams. The examinations can be postponed but the safely of our future leaders cannot be postponed.”

Addressing the issue, the Deputy Health Minister maintained that shutting down such schools is not a panacea to contain the disease.

“If you have a reported case of covid-19 in one secondary school, really is it news? To me as a physician is not news because the virus is in a global or the world population. if you go to almost any place you can pick one or two cases. Does it mean anywhere you pick a covid case the whole place should shut down? The point I’m making is that if you get a positive case, lets say, at Accra Girls, what you have to do is contact tracing for some of the students who might have engaged. If you do the contact tracing and the figures show that you don’t have a widespread, you monitor them, you isolate them, you treat them and when they recover, they’ll be reintegrated.

“We should never get into the trap of saying that if a covid case is discovered somewhere, the whole place should shut down. Otherwise Ghana and the world must shut down today.”