School to close for 14 days as precautionary measure after coronavirus case

A secondary school has been closed for 14 days on foot of the first confirmed case of coronavirus in the Republic of Ireland.

A secondary school on the northside of Dublin has been closed for 14 days on foot of the first confirmed case of coronavirus in the Republic of Ireland.

Scoil Chaitríona, a school of around 400 pupils in the suburb of Glasnevin, will be shut for the duration of the virus’s incubation period, the Department of Health said.

A statement from the Department said the principal, staff and parents of pupils of the school have been notified.

While the Department’s chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan declined to name any specifics regarding the school at a briefing this evening, a letter from the HSE to all affected parents of children attending the school emerged in the immediate aftermath of that briefing.

Marcella Nic Niallaigh, principal of Scoil Mobhi, the feeder primary school to Scoil Chaitríona, told parents by text: “Scoil Chaitríona has confirmed it is closing for two weeks as a precautionary measure.

“I want to reassure you all that I’m seeking direction from the HSE and the Department of Education, and I will revert back to you all as soon as possible.”

The school will remain closed until March 16, with all students and staff being treated as possible contacts of the confirmed patient.

The first confirmed case of Covid-19, the technical name for the Coronavirus which has thus far killed nearly 3,000 people worldwide, was reported on Saturday evening, involving a male in the east of the country who had recently returned to Ireland from one of four areas in northern Italy which have been deemed to be high risk.

Mr Holohan confirmed that the contact-tracing which had begun in the aftermath of the confirmed case had returned a connection with a secondary school in the east of the country.

The Department of Education said it is “available to assist the school in any way necessary”.

“The closing of this school was a decision made on public health grounds after risk assessment deemed it appropriate. All other schools will remain open,” a spokesperson for the Department said.

It could not be confirmed whether or not the initial contact with the virus, which resulted from a trip to one of the four affected areas in northern Italy, had eventuated from a school trip.

Dr Holohan said that all pupils and teachers at the school had been asked to restrict their movements until the end of the incubation period.

“That is, that they limit their social interactions in so far as is possible, that they should avoid social gatherings and crowded settings,” Dr John Cuddihy, director of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, said.

They shouldn’t go to school or work or sporting events, and they should try to avoid contact with vulnerable groups as well.

The decision to lockdown the school does not affect any other institutions, Dr Holohan said.

He confirmed that the school is large in size, but that the current situation is not of sufficient significance to move Ireland from the containment stage regarding Covid-19 into the mitigation stage.

“That decision will depend on a significant number of cases arising in the community and community transmission occurring,” Dr Holohan said.

Former Dublin North-West TD Noel Rock said on social media: "Conncerning news locally as Scoil Chaitriona on St Mobhi Road is closed due to an outbreak of Covid-19."

He urged the public to heed HSE advice.

Over the course of the coming two weeks, each individual affected will receive a text each day from the HSE asking them whether they still feel well, or if they have begun to develop symptoms of the virus.

Dr Ronan Glynn, deputy chief medical officer with the Department, stressed that Coronavirus is not particularly infectious, with each affected person expected to infect between 2 and 2.5 people, compared with the between 14 and 18 people expected to be infected by a person carrying measles.

Dr Holohan meanwhile confirmed that contact tracing for the other confirmed case of coronavirus on the island as a whole, a woman in her 40s based in Belfast, had been completed, and that no further quarantine steps had been taken as a result.