Three students at Lupane State University (LSU) Tuesday tested positive for Covid-19 during a random testing exercise to check for infections and exposure in order to derive estimates of the coronavirus prevalence at the campus.
The university is conducting random PCR testing, done using nasal swabs, to its students and employees living, learning or working on the Main Campus as well as those who access campus.
This level of random testing is for the university to help identify trends and, or monitor changes in the virus prevalence on campuses.
In an interview with CITE, LSU Director of Marketing and Communications, Zwelithini Dlamini, confirmed three students did test positive for Covid-19, adding that the objective was to ascertain the true picture of infections in order to take appropriate interventions.
“The information you have is correct. The LSU Management working with Ministry of Health and Child Care officials have decided to roll out a massive Covid-19 Testing programme at the Main Campus for both Staff and Students with effect from yesterday (Tuesday),” he said.
Dlamini noted that after the students results came out positive, contact tracing immediately started to establish who they had come in contact with and move to quarantine them.
“The contact tracing procedure is being followed through by our teams. The rapid response teams already started tracing classmates and dorm mates. The intention to cover all students and staff who have been in contact with the infected,” he said.
These three students have been placed in isolation at the university’s unoccupied hostels.
“They have been isolated and each affected individual has been allocated a room. Yes, LSU has an unoccupied hostel to accommodate the students,” Dlamini said.
The LSU spokesperson also highlighted that it was pleasing to see both students and staff coming up to partake in the testing.
“I don’t have the exact figures off hand but the tesing process has gathered momentum and the testing queues for students are growing longer with a mix with staff,” he said.
Nationally, the country has recorded 38 327 people with confirmed Covid-19 cases, as of May 4, 2021 as listed in the daily recording by the Ministry of Health and Child Care.
35 775 people have recovered while 1 574 deaths occurred.
To date, a total of 452 191 people have been vaccinated against Covid-19, with 107 586 of that number having received both jabs.
