‘All available evidence shows that schools are not amplification setups for Covid-19’

THE DEPARTMENT OF Education has reiterated its “absolute determination” that schools will remain open in Levels 4 and 5, stating that the latest “to date” public health councils support this plan.

In Northern Ireland, schools will close from Monday for two weeks until November 2, with one of these weeks covering the mid-term Halloween holidays.

Addressing this today, Education Minister Norma Foley said that schools are “safe places to be” and that they would continue to function in the Republic.

Foley said his department received updated public health advice from the HSE only today and showed that “all the available evidence” shows that schools are “not amplification settings” for Covid-19 transmission.

At a press conference this afternoon, a department official said that, despite Covid-19 rates rising across the country, the proportion of cases in young people ages 4 to 18 “has remained stable long before the reopening of schools “.

The department says this rate is around 14%.

The minister affirmed that if the opening of schools had amplified the transmission “this proportion would increase as the children and the personnel contacted each other in the school environment”.

The department also said that schools cannot be seen as an amplification scenario for Covid-19 because the positivity rate when testing is done in a school is relatively low at 2%.

“When there is a confirmed case of someone in the school, a student or a staff member, they do massive testing in the school and have tested up to 6,000 children and teachers to date. And of that very, very few additional positive cases have been detected, ”said the official.

Less than 2% of those tests result in the detection of additional cases. And again, this is much lower than the comparable rate of positive detection in the community, which is around 6% right now.

Speaking today on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said he was convinced that schools would continue to operate below Level 5.

In the government guidelines for Level 5, it says this would be based on the situation and evidence at the time and the teacher unions have sought more clarity.

Asked about her understanding of the situation, the Minister of Education said that “at all levels there is a recommendation that schools remain open” and that “that would be our intention in the future.”