The Health Department has confirmed that a grade 1 pupil from Hammanskraal – initially said to have contracted mpox – has tested negative for the viral disease, after the Education Department in Gauteng had issued a statement last week saying she had been hospitalised with symptoms.
Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane had said the school was notified by the pupil’s parents that she had been diagnosed with mpox when she had been taken to hospital.
The statement was later retracted, with the department saying the results had to first be verified by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and Department of Health (DoH). Subsequently, after tests by the NCID, it was confirmed the results were negative and that no new cases have been recorded.
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