Universities closed as COVID-19 second wave intensifies

Several Sudanese universities announced the suspension of classes as the country continues to experience a second wave of COVID-19 infections. Students and staff at various institutions have been infected.

The president of Al Neelain University announced the suspension of contact classes at all levels until 30 December, but examinations and online learning are continuing.

In similar vein, the University of Kassala halted classes for three weeks from 1-21 December, but Omdurman Islamic University and the Sudan University of Science and Technology are closed until further notice.

The University of Gezira has suspended face-to-face classes at all levels starting from 1 December, but, like Neelain University, it is to continue with examinations and online learning.

Besides reducing the university’s workforce on campus on any given day by means of a 50% rotational system, provided that all precautionary health measures are adhered to, the administration of the University of Gezira also decided to provide paid leave to workers with chronic diseases, those older than 55 and pregnant and lactating women until the end of the pandemic, according to a 30 November statement.

On 28 November, the closure of the University of Khartoum was announced until stricter health precautions were implemented but authorities allowed the continuation of examinations. Also, the University of Bahri suspended classes in all faculties until further notice, but excluded postgraduates.

COVID-19 statistics

On 2 December the World Health Organization statistics indicated that the total number of registered COVID-19 cases in Sudan, since the beginning of the pandemic, had reached 18,254 along with 1,265 deaths.

However, a 1 December report, “Characterising COVID-19 epidemic dynamics and mortality under-ascertainment in Khartoum, Sudan”, found that the majority of COVID-19 deaths in Khartoum were not detected. The UK report revealed that around 16,090 deaths might have been missed from 20 November.

Higher education expert Magdi Tawfik Abdelhamid, a professor at Cairo’s National Research Centre, Egypt, welcomed the anti-coronavirus measures announced by some Sudanese universities.

“It is good action to protect students and the academic community as well as preventing universities from becoming the care homes of the second wave,” Abdelhamid told University World News.

Several universities, including the University of Khartoum and the University of El Gezira have reported COVID-19 cases among its staff and students.

COVID-19 higher education policy tracker

Given the question marks that have been raised about the real epidemiological situation in Sudan and other African countries, universities should establish their own virtual COVID-19 tracking systems, Abdelhamid said.

He said that such a system could provide a selection of practicable strategies to help universities to respond appropriately to the pandemic as well as a guide for regional and international education trackers to learn from best-practices and see how other countries are managing the higher education sector under different conditions.

“This guide could include the Center for Global Development COVID-19 Education Policy Tracking, IIEP Repository of National Education Response Strategies to COVID-19 and the Global Education Cluster Dashboards, Abdelhamid explained.

An 8 October study indicated that Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the regions that has the largest number of cities at the greatest risk of having the next pandemic. The study is titled, “Whence the next pandemic? The intersecting global geography of the animal-human interface, poor health systems and air transit centrality reveals conduits for high-impact spillover”.

The proposed tracking system should also include an e-library to collect studies dealing with higher education-related pandemic responses and impacts, as well as future crisis-preparedness strategies, Abdelhamid said.