Covid-19 is transmitted in fewer than 10 schools, says Nphet

Fewer than 10 schools in the Republic have experienced significant transmission of Covid-19, public health authorities believe.

While there have been a total of 110 registered clusters or outbreaks detected in schools since they reopened in late August, authorities say transmission in most cases has likely occurred outside of school settings.

An information document prepared by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) and the Center for Health Protection Surveillance says that very few schools have likely had “intra-school transmission” or cases spread within schools.

In cases where the virus has spread among school students, it is “more likely” to have occurred in fewer than 10 schools. In these cases, the figures for further spread have been “very low” with one or two cases mainly.

The document was prepared by public health authorities in response to a series of school safety questions from the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI).

The union will receive the results of a vote in favor of the industrial action over concerns it has about staff safety by the end of this week.

ASTI has raised concerns about testing and monitoring response times and “inconsistencies” about the definition of close contacts in schools.

In the document, public authorities acknowledge that the contact tracing service has been under increased pressure with the recent increase in detected cases.

The median time to complete all contact tracing calls in the past week was just under four days, he says.

Public health authorities also confirm that they intend to help speed up contact with schools by establishing 10 dedicated teams across the country linked to public departments that will be the focal point for local schools.

The response adds that the average number of close contacts is five for those tested as part of mass testing in schools.

On average, the number of close contacts per individual case in the community setting is 4.4.