By Clayton Shereni, Masvingo Correspondent

HIGHER Education Ministry says it is closely monitoring developments at tertiary institutions particularly the Masvingo Teachers College which has become an epicenter of Covid-19.

This comes at a time when over 150 students tested positive at the teachers college with experts warning that more cases can be recorded at various institutions of higher learning where thousands of students are attending lectures.

All tertiary institutions across the country have resumed face-to-face lectures and this can be a perfect environment for Covid-19 to quickly spread due to high interaction between staff and students.

However, the government through the Higher Education Ministry and the Health Ministry is watching closely events unfolding in an effort to curtail spread of the disease.

Higher Education Ministry secretary, Fanuel Tagwira said they are working together with the Health Ministry and no Covid-19 positive student was being asked to go home.

“For every college or institution we have a standard operating procedure that should be followed in such scenarios that is supervised by the Ministry of Health. Critically, what is important to note is that we don’t send away students who test positive because if we do that we will be simply spreading the disease,” Tagwira told NewZimbabwe.com.

“The other important thing to know is that most of these people (students at Masvingo Teachers College) are vaccinated and scientifically when a vaccinated person contracts the disease his or her body is able to fight the virus. Most of them are just okay and they are not even showing any symptoms,” he added.

Last year, tertiary institutions were forced to conduct online classes and virtual graduation due to high infection rate and spread of Covid-19.