Malawi President orders schools’ closure,MSCE exams to continue

State president Dr Lazarus Chakwera has ordered closure of schools for three weeks due to covid-19

However Chakwera has said students in boarding schools will remain to assess the severity of the pandemic to determine whether it is safe for the students to go home

In a national address Sunday evening Chakwera said presidential taskforce will provide additional support to schools to manage students’ transition and communication with parents as well as guardians

The president told the nation that he had directed minister of justice to gazette on Monday new guidelines recommended by ministerial committee which the vice president reconvened during the week

The new rules include markets must close no later than 5 pm, any person found in public by law enforcement authorities without mask fined, employers reorganize their employees to work in shifts and religious gatherings to have not more than 50 people.

The president emphasized that careless and selfish behaviors must stop

He said a few weeks after he came into office his administration released 6.2 billion kwacha for use by covid-19 taskforce in combating the pandemic.

Chakwera exlained that 60 million has been used by coordinating cluster to facilitate planning meetings and monitoring as well as evaluation visits countrywide, 535 million by department of disaster management affairs for screening, testing feeding, sanitation, security, transportation and lodging of over 19000 Malawians who have been coming from South Africa

“In addition 185 million kwacha was utilized for public awareness, 580 million for border patrols, 72 million kwacha for sensiting the public on gender based violence, supporting victims and social cash transfer. Furthermore 100 million kwacha has been used by education cluster to procure protective supplies for schools, 50 million to monitor covid-19 protocols in workplace while another 50 million for establishing isolation centres,”explains Chakwera

Chakwera has disclosed that the lions share of the funds were used by health and local government clusters which spent 3 and 1.4 billion kwacha respectively.

However the 30 million kwacha that was allocated to agriculture cluster was not spent nor the remaining 3 million kwacha which was not allocated.

The president said all the clusters need additional funding to respond effectively to new wave of infections hence directing the minister of finance to allocate 17.52 billion kwacha as soon as possible to covid-19 taskforce