Malawi: President Lazarus Chakwera announces to reopen schools from early September

Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera has announced that the government is planning to reopen schools early September, despite a surge in COVID-19 cases, according to a news report by The Observer.

In his weekly national address on Saturday evening, President Chakwera said only schools that meet the government's safety standards on coronavirus prevention will be allowed to reopen.

But health experts warn of further spread of the disease should the schools fail to put up necessary measures to contain the spread.

Malawi's government announced the indefinite closure of schools on March 20 before the country registered its first three cases of COVID-19, on April 2. But as of Saturday, Malawi had confirmed 5,026 cases and 157 deaths.

Chakwera has said that the decision to reopen the schools stems from strides Malawi is making in its fight against COVID-19.

He says "although the number of those who have been found with the virus has now passed 5,000, only 5% have gotten sick enough to need hospitalization. Even among the 389 health workers, who have contracted the virus, we have lost only once and the rest are in recovery."

The daily update by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 shows over half of the confirmed cases have so far recovered. This leaves the country with 2,246 active cases out of nearly 40,000 people so far tested across the county.