COVID-19 scare at Naps as education official tests positive

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Parents of Naparima College students are expressing concerns about their safety after a Ministry of Education employee operating from the school compound in San Fernando contracted COVID-19.

The person in question is employed with the Victoria Education Division, which is temporarily housed in a building adjacent to the school’s main classroom areas.

One parent said yesterday that several Victoria Division staff members and a senior school official are now in quarantine after he individual tested positive.

“We are very concerned because nobody is telling us what has been done and we also heard that (name called) came to the school even though he is supposed to be on quarantine,” the parent said.

She explained that classes for student allowed to return to in-person teaching have been ongoing but staff members were uncomfortable with the existing arrangements.

However, Secondary Schools Board of Education chairman Christian Dookhoo yesterday said all COVID-19 protocols are being followed. He said the school was fumigated twice on March 12 and 13, according to directives from the Ministry of Health. He also said they had no information that anyone had broken any quarantine order.

Also contacted for comment, Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said the Victoria Education Division employee and several coworkers who were deemed primary cases were all quarantined.

“These members are still on quarantine and contact tracing continues. The CMOHs have reassured us that the surveillance team would only contact persons they deem primary or secondary contacts based on the definition that contact involves exposure of greater than 15 mins at less than six feet,” Gadsby-Dolly said.

She noted that all persons involved in this case have been followed up by the unit and none of them was currently symptomatic.

“The area in which the person who tested positive worked was sanitised by the MTS,” she said.

Only yesterday, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr Rohan Parasram said T&T was on the verge of a significant increase in COVID-19. He also said an educational awareness campaign will be launched in County Caroni and County Victoria, where there has been an upsurge of cases.

Parasram said there was a rolling average of 10.28 cases over the last seven days and 70 cases over the last epidemiological week compared to 37 the week before, which represented an 89 per cent increase over that period.