Test all SHS students, staff for Covid-19 – GNAT

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has suggested to the government to conduct mass testing for all students and staff who are currently in the Senior High Schools (SHSs) that have recorded cases of the Coronavirus (Covid-19). President of the association, Phillapa Larsen, said it will be better for all the other students and staff in the affected schools to know their status in order not to further spread the virus. She told Alfred Ocansey on the 3FM’s Sunrise Tuesday that students and staff of the various SHSs should have been tested even before school reopened, something she said was not done. Her comments come in the wake of SHSs recording cases of the Covid-19. The Accra Girls Senior High School for instance has recorded 55 cases of the virus. “Students and staff of the GES should have been tested bit that did not work. In one of the meetings we were told that anytime there is a case in a school the students and staff will be tested”, she said. “Now that a lot more schools are recording cases, I expect that the Ministry of Education, the GES and the Ghana Health Service to start with the testing of all students and staff of the various schools that have recorded cases. That is what we expect. “In any case parents are agitating that they will want their wards to be home and I have always said that it is not just a matter of closing down the schools and asking staff and students to get back home. “People will have to be tested for each and every person to know his or her status and as to whether the person is infected and has to be isolated”, she added. There has also been calls for the closure of all the SHSs but the Chairman of the National Peace Council, Professor Emmanuel Asante, has disagreed with such calls. He would rather the Covid-19 management team used data to advise on the next line of action.