Pretoria, July 16 (RHC)-- South Africa's largest teachers union has called on authorities to close schools until the number of COVID-19 cases drop in the country which has the most infections on the continent.

"The community infections have been rising since the reopening of schools and [it is] inevitably affecting the schools," Mugwena Maluleke, the general secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), said in a virtual media briefing.

"In the country, the virus is reaching its peak and at the same time, we are in winter season known as the influenza season," he said, adding that if schools remain open, learners, teachers, and academic staff would be at high risk of contracting the virus as South Africa approaches its peak of infections.