The spokesperson for the Department of Education in the Free State province, Howard Ndaba, says the school’s activities will be suspended for 72 hours.

Ndaba says the number of cases has risen from 35 on Tuesday to 48 on Wednesday. Any more than 30 cases are defined as an outbreak. Ndaba says the entry point is internal, from local learners, spreading it to the hostels, whilst some learners still have flu symptoms which is an indication of cases going up. Ndaba says learners will be taught on all active platforms and, in addition, hibernation classes will be arranged with an interim hibernation timetable to accommodate learners who cannot afford to be fetched by parents and those who may have connectivity challenges.

“As you can see, numbers are escalating. Our key focus is to protect the lives of our learners and our teachers, that is why, together with the stakeholders at the school, we have taken a decision to temporarily suspend any contact, physical contact in terms of classes, meetings, and physical sporting activities to ensure we restore life to our learners and bring everything back to normality,” says Ndaba.

“Learners will return in a staggered format. Grade 10 - 12 will return to school by Thursday 3 February 2022, and Grade 8 and 9 will return from Monday 7 February 2022. Parents have been duly informed about these developments. We urge parents to ensure learners who are eligible to vaccinate to do so, as well teachers eligible for a booster shot, to do so,” says Ndaba.

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