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Medical director Dr. Tony Holohan has said he does not anticipate the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) advising the government not to reopen schools at the end of the midterm recess.
He said Nphet would meet this week for a more comprehensive assessment of the trends of the past few days. Dr. Holohan spoke Tuesday night after the Health Department confirmed another five deaths associated with Covid-19, bringing the total in the state to 1,890. 720 more cases were confirmed, and four of the last five days registered fewer than 1,000 new cases.
Dr. Heather Burns, deputy chief medical officer, said data on positivity rates in schools suggested that they are not causing the infection. In elementary schools, 2.7 percent of close contacts of confirmed cases test positive, he said, and in secondary schools the corresponding rate is 2.1 percent. In the general population, 10% of close contacts test positive.
She said this was “reassuring” and added that there has been “considerable participation in terms of implementing public health guidelines and keeping schools safe for our students.”
Meanwhile, the Irish Secondary Teachers Association (ASTI) is due to receive the results of a vote in favor of an industrial action due to 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.
The union said schools are facing staff shortages, while teachers must isolate themselves while waiting for Covid-19 test results. In some cases, schools were missing as many as 10 teachers who were absent while they waited for test results, ASTI President Ann Piggott said.
The contract tracking system in schools needed to be much faster, as there are currently delays of up to a week for close contacts of positive cases to be identified in some cases, he said.
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