Schools will be closed from March 18 due to the coronavirus outbreak.
There are no plans to shut down schools as South Africa grapples with Covid-19.
The minister of health, Dr Zweli Mkhize, announced yesterday that four more people have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the number of infected individuals in South Africa to seven.
In a press briefing on the same day, the basic education minister, Angie Motshekga, said her department had been inundated with requests for information on its plans for dealing with the coronavirus in schools. These requests, she said, were being directed to the health department.
“We have sent a circular to all our schools to provide guidelines on what to do in terms of general hygiene standards. The department of health, however, will communicate should any announcements be made specifically on the coronavirus,” Motshekga said.
Cowan House School in Hilton in KwaZulu-Natal shut its doors on Friday after the first case of the virus was confirmed. The children of the man who first tested positive for the virus attended the private school.
Mkhize and the MEC for education in KwaZulu-Natal held a meeting with the parents and staff of the school on Friday.
It has been reported that the children of the infected man are also in quarantine.
Meanwhile, Grayston Preparatory School in Sandton, Johannesburg, also closed on Monday as a precautionary measure after it emerged that one of its staff members had been in contact with a person that had tested positive for the coronavirus.