Copyright
Google
Some of the eight positive cases are students at Bannerman High School
Covid-19 clusters in Glasgow and Lanarkshire are linked to house parties.
A joint statement from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lanarkshire said the two boards are working together on the outbreak.
A total of 11 linked Covid cases have been identified in north-east Glasgow in addition to eight cases in North Lanarkshire.
The health boards confirmed Monday that the cases were linked.
They also said that evidence of social gatherings without social distance was a factor in their research.
A spokesman for both organizations said: “We can confirm that there are links to issues across both health boards. We are working closely on a cross-board issue on a regular basis, including at current clusters, where investigations are ongoing.
“There is currently no evidence of transfer in schools.
“There is evidence that social mixing, especially to maintain social gatherings in homes, without physical distancing measures, can transmit the virus and is a factor in this research.”
Health officials say there is no evidence to suggest the virus is spreading to Caldervale High School
It turned out on Sunday that a student at Bannerman High in Baillieston, who had been attending classes when the school reopened last week, tested positive for the virus.
Several other students at Bannerman High had previously tested positive, but began self-isolating before returning to class last week.
Five students at nearby schools in North Lanarkshire have tested positive in recent days, including:
- Three students from St Ambrose High School in Coatbridge
- One student from St Andrew’s High School in Coatbridge
- One student from Caldervale High School in Airdrie
There are also three further linked cases where there are no pupils or staff at the schools.
Test and protect is now tracing those who were in contact with the student at Bannerman High and Glasgow City Council has written to parents.
Parents of a senior pupil at one of the affected schools in North Lanarkshire told the BBC they were “disappointed” that her son had to isolate himself after “the selfish actions of others”.
They did not want to be identified, but said they were informed that their son was sitting nearby for one of the positive cases for more than 15 minutes and had to isolate himself.
His mother said: “We have done everything we can to protect our children during lockdown. That we are really disappointed that the actions of others have resulted in this.
“We got a phone call Sunday night and our world turned upside down. Test and trace calls to advise that our teenage son was identified as a contact of a positive student at Caldervale High.
“Our son had already seen it via social media, he knew who the boy was and had sat next to him in a class. And because he had sat next to him for more than 15 minutes, he had to contact Test and Protect . “
Copyright
Getty Images
Teenagers from schools in Lanarkshire and Glasgow had to be tested and had to self-isolate
She added: “He has to isolate until August 27. He is now missing school due to selfish actions of people having house parties.
“We believe this all stems from a house party at Coatbridge that involved a large number of children. People who encourage young people to join parties do not understand the implications on others.”
The child’s father said he had to take his son to test at Ravenscraig’s on Monday morning.
He added: “there were three cars in front and we had to do the test ourselves in the car. By the time we were ready, there were still 10-15 cars with children in the tests.”
Nicola Sturgeon said the outbreak was a community outbreak that involved school children
In the morning of the Scottish Government’s Coronavirus briefing, Nicola Sturgeon said: ‘I am concerned about what appears to be an increasing number of cases, although many of these new cases we are seeing are linked to known clusters and outbreaks.
“But nonetheless, it is a really sharp reminder to us that the threat of the virus is not gone.
“We all need to be really, really careful, ultra careful when it comes to following through on all the public health advice.”
She said people should be careful about the school connection because they are community outbreaks that involve school children but are not school outbreaks.
Dr Christine Tait-Burkard, Assistant Professor of Infection and Immunity at the University of Edinburgh told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland program that she would not be surprised if young people who met socially were spread the virus.
She said: “Children are children and they like to get along and as we know from studies that came out of Public Health England last week that high school students actually forget the virus in the same amounts as adults. The virus will spread and forward in these meetings.
“The students themselves have a very low risk of serious illness, but on the other hand, they are probably very asymptomatic and can carry the virus in their households.”
Under current Scottish government rules, no more than eight people from a maximum of three households can gather inside.
Social distance applies to everyone from separate households, unless they are under 12 years of age.
