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Teachers unions have raised concerns about the reopening of schools if security measures around Covid-19 are not improved.
But Medical Director Dr. Tony Holohan said that based on current evidence, schools are not anticipated to not reopen as planned.
He said: “In terms of the data that we are seeing, we do not anticipate that we will be in a situation where we will go back to advise the minister to inform the government that for public health reasons, we would not. We see right now that schools should not reopen as planned. “
A briefing by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) tonight heard that the positivity rate in elementary schools is 2.7% and 2.1% in post-primary education, well below the rate of community transmission of 10%.
Dr. Heather Burns said that part of the reason the rate was higher in elementary schools was due to the difficulty of implementing social distancing and other public health guidelines in those settings.
She said: “I guess there are nuances in the data there, in terms of the ability to operationalize the public health guide.
“In younger age groups, that can be more difficult, and in children with special educational needs, it is obviously more difficult to implement capsule systems and physical distancing.
“That can also be the case at the primary level. Therefore, with younger children of primary age, it may be more difficult to adhere to capsule systems.
“But I think the most important general message is how much lower the positivity rate is among close contacts in the general community setting, which is around 10 percent.
“All the data we have to date supports the international position that schools are not high-risk environments for Covid-19.”
On concerns raised by teachers’ unions, Dr. Siobhán Ní Bhriain said that supports are available for schools if they need them.
She said: “If there is any concern about an outbreak in a school, there are public health teams that go out nationwide to deal with each school.
“We accept that each school can be different. These supports are there for public health ”.
Dr Holohan said that while there has been a drop in the number of cases of more than 1,000 per day, Ireland is “definitely not” in a position to say that it has turned a corner in the fight against the disease.
But he said he was “confident” that if people adhere to Level 5 restrictions, there will be a “significant suppression” of the virus in the coming weeks.
“We just hope it’s all we need,” added Dr. Holohan.
However, he ruled out a relaxation of public health councils to allow children to participate in Halloween activities over the weekend.
Dr. Holohan said: “The impact of all that on Halloween will be significant in terms of the way children like to celebrate these types of events.
“I don’t think, unfortunately, that the levels of disease transmission are now at a level where we can begin to say that we are going to start putting some of those tips and guidelines aside, despite the fact that it is Halloween.”
The CMO reiterated its call to people who are close contacts of a positive case to self-isolate.
Symptoms of #coronavirus include:
❗fever (high temperature: 38 degrees Celsius or more)
❗ cough: it can be any type of cough, not just dry
Losing or changing your sense of smell or taste
❗ shortness of breath or shortness of breath
More information: https://t.co/tXii1Z6kKt pic.twitter.com/VhsRDMBSdq– HSE Ireland (@HSELive) October 27, 2020
He said: “It is the most important thing, particularly now for people who have cases, or may have symptoms of Covid, or are awaiting tests and may have contacts, especially those who live in houses with people who have confirmed cases – they should isolate themselves in their own rooms.
“They should restrict their movements, stay home, if they are contacts.”
As of Tuesday at 2 p.m., there were 341 Covid-19 patients in the hospital, of which 38 are in the ICU. There were 29 additional hospital admissions in the last 24 hours.
Of the additional cases, 228 occurred in Dublin, 130 in Cork, 47 in Galway, 31 in Meath, 27 in Limerick, and the remaining 257 cases are spread over 20 other counties.
Almost two-thirds, 65%, of the additional cases were in people under 45 years of age and the mean age is 32.
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