COVID 19: Angry Parents Storm Accra Girls! …To Demand ‘Missing’ Students

Drama unfolded at the Accra Girls Senior High School (SHS) yesterday when angry parents stormed the school premises to demand the whereabouts of their children who have tested positive for COVID-19.

The action follows a joint communiqué from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Ghana Education Service (GES) revealing that 55 persons in the school have tested positive for the disease.

There was heavy police presence in the School as parents walked to and fro at the security gate in anticipation to be allowed entry.

Although the parents were not allowed into the school, more parents were seen trickling in one by one.

Academic work came to an abrupt end while students were seen loitering around the school premises.

Parents who could not establish communication with their wards were confused following news that some students have been picked up yesterday dawn to some treatment centers.

A parent told Star News “I do not necessarily speak to my daughter every day. But she tried to speak to me Sunday night. When she spoke to me, she was almost in tears because she asked me to come pick her up in the night. She did not understand what was happening so she said I should come in the night.”

No Closure

Meanwhile, the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, Professor Kwasi Opoku Amankwa, has dismissed calls for Senior High Schools to be closed down due to increasing cases of COVID-19.

Speaking at the weekly press conference yesterday, Prof. Opoku Amankwa said keeping the students in schools is the best option.

Despite this hard face position by the GES to keep the students in school at the peril of their lives, a Junior High School in the Oti Region is said to have recorded a case of the virus.

Dr. Badu  Sarkodie however failed to name the school in question. He also did not give details on when the case was detected or what is being done to contain the virus at the said school.

“The only reported JHS with a case is in the Oti Region. Just one. I think they [Junior High Schools] are probably adhering to the protocols more than the others,” he said.

“The tertiary schools opened on the 15 of June and again we haven’t had many events within the tertiary and then the SHS on the 22nd and the JHS 29th June. So, based on the time, if you look at the period, 29th to now is more than two weeks and if we are going by the incubation period, should the JHS be confined, then it will be amongst the safest place for us as a country.”

“The Senior High Schools we have the data here despite the number of cases, a few of them in sporadic quantities that have been reported. The rate within the SHS is much lower than the total population in the country. The least was the Junior High Schools,” he said.

Western Region

In a related development, some five Senior High Schools in the Western Region have recorded COVID-19 cases.

This was announced by the Western Regional Director of Health, Dr. Jacob Mahama.

“Western Region has recorded some COVID-19 cases. About five schools, each has one case but Nsei SHS in Axim has eight cases. In Archbishop Porter Girls too, we had one case but there are other cases which results haven’t come in yet.”

On her part, the Public Relations Officer of the Western Regional Education Service, Kate Biney, told Citi News: “I know that Ahantaman Girls has recorded a suspected case and Archbishop Porter Girls also has one suspected case. For Nsei, Diabene, and Adiembra, I will have to check.”

Loose Talk?

The National Youth Organiser of the New Patriotic Party Henry Nana Boakye popularly known as Nana B says SHS says students who have tested positive for COVID-19 in schools brought the virus from their homes.

“It is important to note that the students who have tested positive for COVID-19 did not even contract the virus on their respective campuses, this is another strong point, that all of these cases they brought it from their various homes,” he stated at a party event in Kumasi Tuesday.