Parents Lament of Unending Colds Since School Reopening

Students in a class before the Covid-19 pandemic.
A photo of students in a classroom
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A number of parents have lamented of having symptoms associated with common colds since mass school re-opening on January 4, 2021.

The parents stated that their children often had colds and would transmit to others living in the household. Most indicated that they had gone to hospital for treatment and were even issued with doses of antibiotics but the colds still haunted them.

"My baby has been at home for a whole week. Coughing endlessly. Antibiotics aren't working," Tabby Josiah, a parent stated.

"All my colleagues are down with this unknown flu," Murithi Tony divulged.

A medical practitioner dressed in protective gear at Coronavirus isolation and treatment facility in Mbagathi District Hospital on Friday, March 6, 2020
A medical practitioner dressed in protective gear at Mbagathi District Hospital on Friday, March 6, 2020
Simon Kiragu
Kenyans.co.ke

Previously, parents of pre-primary students questioned the viability of enforcing Covid-19 measures especially for children in kindergarten.  

They lamented that children exchanged masks with their counterparts, shared sweets while others went home without their masks.

Some of the kindergarten teachers also stated that they had to keep reminding the children that they needed to have their masks on all the time.

"The children mostly complained that they were not breathing well under their masks," a teacher told Kenyans.co.ke.

The common colds have raised an alarm bearing in mind that there has been a surge in the number of Covid-19 infections and deaths in the last couple of days.

Yesterday, 410 individuals tested positive for the virus bringing Kenya's cumulative confirmed positive cases to 105,467. At the same time, six individuals died.

Dr Loice Achieng Ombajo, a physician and infectious disease doctor, told Kenyans.co.ke that the colds should not cause panic. She argued that it was a usual phenomenal every time students resumed school.

"From time immemorial, every time schools reopen, there is a surge in the number of people who suffer from common colds. It's noticeable now because parents were with their children for a long period of time last year," she said.

An image of Loice Ombajo
Head of Infectious Diseases at Kenyatta National Hospital Loice Ombajo speaking at a past interview.
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