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The management of the Cork school, which was forced to close this week due to a significant Covid-19 outbreak among students, believes that if the information had been shared with them sooner, they may have been able to limit the spread of the virus.
Mass testing of all Gaelscoil Uí Drisceoil students and staff began today, nine days after the school’s first case of the virus was notified. It is understood that more cases have been identified among students and members of their families.
The school management believes that if it had been notified of other cases that had not been disclosed, it could have limited the scale of the outbreak, according to Seán Ó Conaill, president of the school’s board of directors.
“The concern of the school is that we want to limit an outbreak as much as possible and get as much relevant data into the hands of the principal as soon as possible,” he said.
“We appreciate that the HSE can be in possession of these data,” he told RTÉ.
“They have considerable legal powers to share that data in certain circumstances where they normally could not.
“Had they provided us with that information at an earlier stage, there is a good chance that the scale of this outbreak would have been limited and [the school would] has not had to close. “
The school did not respond to inquiries from the .
Meanwhile, HSE Executive Director Paul Reid said HSE was working closely with the school. Mr. Reid said the approach to dealing with an outbreak in schools involved a risk assessment.
“In some cases it has been a pod, in some cases it has been a class, in very few cases it has been a complete school,” he said.
“We would work very closely with that school and the school principal in terms of monitoring and evaluation as the tests come back.”
Mr. Reid said he did not know if any tests had come back positive, but described it as an “ongoing process” and said the HSE was also working with the school’s board of directors.
“Once again, it is that balance of risk that our teams judge,” he said.
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